False Wings
by Butterfly Crown
Summary: A tale of cross-dressing, secret identities, mistaken identities, bad pick up lines, failed more-than-just-friends clues, teenager problems, parental problems, two too smart people, then add a dash of romance and interference for a young couple-ish duo to get the ball rolling. Will Cyborg get a girlfriend that stays? Will Silky get his own toy? Will the wings fly away? On Hiatus.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"Hey, dudes. Are you sure that the race is today?" Beast Boy stared at the outside world of overcast skies, high winds, and low temperatures usually signaling that a race was to be canceled or rescheduled more than anything else. Cyborg stepped over to the green shapeshifter. Everyone was glum. If the late summer air race became canceled because of bad weather, then there would be no chance to give out the awards for this year.

"Relax BB. We have a weather manipulator coming from Greece," Cyborg said cheerfully typing at alarming speeds. If Cyborg hadn't made the machines in the tower himself, most of them would be broken from close to abusive overuse. Beast Boy looked over his shoulder to see text appearing and disappearing on the screen as if Cyborg was having a word war with himself. Starfire wandered in from who knows where in the tower. Absent mindlessly floating upside down she looked over Cyborg's shoulder and frowned.

"Cyborg, what is this thing that you are doing?" Starfire said, her hair obstructing the view of the screen of the chat room.

"Star, do you have a bet going with someone to stay upside down?" Cyborg said jokingly. She righted herself, trying to not defy the Earth's gravitational pull, and put herself on the ground. She looked again at the screen while Raven came out from the floor of the roof to join the judges panel, pulling the table and chairs through with her. The two girls began setting up while Beast Boy read aloud from the screen in a comedic voice. Robin appeared from the elevator shaft and walked over as this was happening.

Data_Head19: Hi, where are you? XD  
Lifter11: On the train. Weather looks bad on your end though ,_,  
Data_Head19: Yeah, we have a weather manipulator coming though so the race should be fine.  
Lifter11: Great! Who knows, maybe you'll see me. *winks*  
Data_Head19: Probably won't knowing my luck. I'll miss your train and then lose you in the city. XD  
Lifter11: Don't jinx it! :P

"To whom are you talking about Jinx with?" said Starfire curiously floating again.

"No Starfire, jinxing the outcome of something, not Jinx." said Robin from the other side of Cyborg's shoulder scanning the page.

"Since when did my messages become public property?" Cyborg said, closing the computer after typing a quick message.

"Since that one Control Freak incident, where he took all of our most embarrassing moments in the tower and put them on _every computer in America,_" Beast Boy cheekily replied.

"Race is starting soon. Here's the weather manipulator." Raven said to quickly trying to avoid a scene.

The group looked to the far the docks, where there was a indistinct girl in a Grecian tunic. With some sort of movement, the clouds dispersed, the wind blew down to a swift breeze, and the temperature rose to the more comfortable 75 degrees. She left the docks and people began to swarm the area to launch. Civilians, heroes, humans, metahumans, mutants all crowded around for the best starting area. The Titans East were doing rescues for anyone who fell in the water. Some fan girls took it so far as to purposefully fall in. Many were disappointed.

"Whats that shrimp doing in the competition?!" Cyborg stood up angrily, pointing toward the left side of the docks. There at the end was Gizmo with a feebly disguised Hive 5 behind him. The team switched positions to confront the enemy.

"The competition's open to anyone, pit sniffers!" Gizmo called out jeeringly.

"Rob! That can't be true: he's a villain!" Cyborg was damn near tears by this point.

"He's twisting the rules to his agenda. Damn! We can't mess with any of the contestants after this point." Rob shot a death glare at Gizmo.

The smug look on Gizmo's face as he turned to the Hive 5 showed that, as usual, there was an ulterior motive in mind. Jinx, in a strawberry wig, turned to him. "Remember the plan. You either win the competition and steal the top prizes, or you steal the tech of the person who beat you."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna to win though. With all this puppy has in it, there's no way I can lose." Gizmo's arrogance triggered the next event.

A slip of paper carried on the wind hit Gizmo on the face.

**Lets see who is better: you or me. -#17**

"You s_not!_ I'll just take your ride and-" he dropped the paper as the lineup signal rang out.

"Hey, shut it. We've got work to do," Jinx said scornfully, hexing the paper.

From behind a small pillar, #17 smiled underneath their helmet. Numbers were being called out: 14, 15, 16 (_Gizmo_), 17 (Challenger), 18,19,20. A person in a white suit with some sort of back pack on stepped up to the starting line. The Gizmo next to them looked... tiny. Even the announcer let out a snicker; because it was Cyborg, everyone had seen it coming.

"Hey, you. In the white. You sent me that note." Gizmo spat the words out like rotten sushi.

There was no reaction from the figure in white, a sheet hung over part of their hang glider. Just standing there waiting for the shot, underneath the helmet that person's eyes were half closed in concentration. Gizmo was like an enraged ape trying to get out of its small cage at the taller figure. The count down had begun though, and he couldn't blow the start. That would look bad, but he would kill that helmeted snot when he had the chance.

"Ready, set," the hornpipe like thing that Starfire was about to blow was replaced with a tin whistle,"Go!" Raven shouted at the top of her lungs. "Bweet!" Starfire's whistle called out across the water to the contestants. A white hang-glider powered by rockets was the first that took of at the beginning of the 'g' sound. The contestants took off nearly at the same time in a wild rush of displaced air. The competition, however, was not just about the speed of take off but the maneuverability of the aerial contestants.

Bags of compressed air were floating at various heights meant to buffet the aerialists without actually hurting them severely. The shock would still render people dizzy for a few seconds, making it less likely to win the race. Dirty moves were employed by Gizmo in the first few seconds of the whistle, but he could not be disqualified because he used no weapons.

"He's cheating! Urgh-Let me go, Robin!" There was a strangle hold on Cyborg at the judges' booth."You can't do anything about dirty tactics!" Robin hissed.

Gizmo, however ahead he may have gotten, was still behind the stranger in white. Frustrated, he abandoned his efforts of sabotaging the other contestants in favor of getting even with #17. He zoomed just ahead of #17 forcing the other racer to take a different route, one not so forgiving to hang gliders or other large-area flying device. The change of gadgets took a total of three seconds with the hang-glider folding into the backpack as something like bug wings came from the sides. The quick maneuverability of the contestant was on par with Gizmo, enraging the midget even more.

Many contestants at this point were either out of the race or so far behind that the idea of winning was just ludicrous. However, the idea that someone might beat Gizmo was enough for the soaking-wet contestants that #17 had their support. With just 27 yards to go, a large gust of wind was coming up from behind like a wave that was beginning to swamp the contestants in the back, upsetting the air bags and contestants in its wake.

_My lucky day, I guess. Getting to show off so much might just go to my head though... Who cares, no one will know it's me._

The wings folded together compressing themselves as the suit inflated until it resembled a giant cream puff. The timing was just right. While Gizmo was destabilized, the wind took # 17 like a feather to the finish line winning first place. The slight turning of the head to face behind with Gizmo throwing a fit mid-air, you could imagine a smirk underneath that helmet almost too well. Cyborg wasn't for one wasn't concealing his amusement.

The victor didn't stay long after collecting the reward money and medal. Quickly leaving, not even pausing to say thank-you to the hosts of the tournament take out off. Somehow managing to fade into the clouds until the crowd gave up trying to sight them.

* * *

At the lost and found desk, a short coppery-haired girl, locks in a neat bun, came up with a look of business about her. Armed with a red backpack and a dark blue duffle bag on each shoulder she peered at the police officer for a few seconds before asking if they could let out an announcement to Cy that Aria was here. Startled, the woman looked up to meet gray eyes that had a determined glint to them.

With a sigh the police woman wondered when teenagers got it into their heads to intimidate there elders like that? "Would Cy please report to the lost and found, a girl named Aria is here looking for you." If anyone found it unusual or odd that a mostly prosthetic covered person at almost 6 feet tall high-fived an almost 5'2" 16 year-old girl, they said nothing. To Cyborg's credit, he at least introduced his much smaller friend, or at least tried to. The girl rushed to say sorry, her laptop and phone had died. At the speed she was going, she managing to garble the message faster than Kid Flash ever could.

With a big grin, she dashed head-long into a short introduction, "Hi! I'm Aria Leon, Ria for short. Do me a favor and don't call me that. I know Cy from a chat room about-" when she noticed their blank looks. With her stomach growling in time with Starfire's, the idea of pizza sounded like a good idea. The other four members of the team quickly found out that the varying interests of them all seemed to have some sort of common ground with Aria. It was near four o' clock when the first pizza was ordered, and closer to seven when the fifth was finished by the combination of Aria, Cyborg and Beast Boy.

"So how long are you saying?" asked Robin, calmly interested.

"For about a week. I'm booked for a lot of competitions after this. Right now though, I want to enjoy Jump City! Without getting jumped though. That would suck," she teased the Titans.

"Then we must hurry to make sure you have my homeland's specialty before you go!" Starfire's joy dimmed as a cramp ran through her gut, her body's protest from eating so much.

Their new friend smiled saying that she had better check into her hotel. Once they left her company, her cheerful demeanor left her in place of a more studious, watchful one that followed her to the hotel. She climbed up the fire escape to the roof of the building, the city opening up before her in the dying light. She pulled out of her duffle gray sweater wrapped around a white helmet with clothes inside. It was quickly put on over her regular clothes inflated to look like a teen aged boys figure. The batteries in the helmet and suit were only about three quarters full, even so the perk was hard to resist.

"I love night vision," Aerial Ace thought. The name was uncovered from the top of her hang glider now that the competition was over. She looked out on the town that needed its own superhero team. "They need a break," she thought with a smile.

*Hope you liked it! I was a bit nervous about the theme, I've never done a romance. Please review to let me know if I'm doing this right.*


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Persistent aren't they?" murmured Aerial Ace to herself. Another trash can became covered in the sticky substance that was Fang and Kitten's trademark. The suit wouldn't work well against paralysis or- "How on Earth did she get a Plasma Whip? This one's low-grade but it's still expensive." Constant muttering couldn't be heard over the hum of the hang glider's rockets. It also couldn't insult anyone to say that she was bored of second rate villains.

An opening would happen given time, one where they weren't covering each others backs and just focusing on destroying her. She dove between the couple and then zoomed out of the way to let them deal with it. Kitten became wrapped up in Fang's web while Fang was scorched by her Plasma Whip. The undignified screams alerted nearby police officers allowing Aerial Ace to quickly finish the job on Fang. She released the knife hidden up her sleeve, hitting Fang with its handle to knock him out.

A note was left at the scene for the police and Titans.

**You saw ****me in the race. Just helping out.-Aerial Ace.**

The Titans called a meeting in order to discuss the message and what its implications were. Starfire hurried downstairs with Silky in her arms. Cyborg abandoned his gaming match with Beast Boy, but not before winning. The two of them were arguing back and forth by the time Raven had reluctantly closed her book and joined them in the living room. On the screen in the living room, half of it was taken up by a picture of the said note and on the other half a video chat with Kitten and Fang in jail.

Starfire had to be restrained for a moment, leaving Kitten screaming silently on the screen as the situation was explained. The mute button was turned off leaving Kitten's rage to be heard by everyone in the room. "-That crazy Hero just came out of no where! Zoomed in after Fang and I had gone through the jewelry store!"

"It wasn't a false alert then," Raven mused to herself.

"Will you shut up?! I got attacked by that freaking hang-gliding F-" Fang's arachnid face filled the screen.

"They had a hang-glider," Cyborg confirmed.

"She hit Fang with a knife, I saw!" Kitten screeched.

"He is not cut. I see that his burns are worse than that. Was it not _you_ who did that?" Starfire said sharply, her intense dislike of Kitten getting the better of her.

"I bet she hit him with the handle," Beast Boy guessed, apparently correct by the exclamations made by the couple on screen.

"Thanks for your help," Robin said. "I-" whatever Fang was about to say was cut off when Beast Boy turned off the screen. He turned to the team. "Dudes, have we ever heard something that loud, that wasn't supposed to kill us?"

"I'd say she was doing a good job, if that was her motive," Cyborg joked.

"Even so, I'm not so sure that #17's motives where pure," Robin stated. Everyone had guessed that it was #17 in the race. Now known as Aerial Ace, who had put Fang and Kitten in jail.

"I can't say I'm sorry it wasn't us that put them there," Cyborg commented. Help unexpected wasn't help unwanted in a city this big. The rest of the team's feelings were mixed. Robin was suspicious because Aerial Ace hadn't announced who they were at the competition. Starfire was excited but puzzled at this new-found help. Raven was suspicious but lazy; if someone wasn't trying to break laws, they were allowed. Beast Boy was confused flat out; who just comes and starts working for nothing?

The team was about to disperse when a cough came from the doorway. Aria grinned when they jumped, reassuring them about her identity. Her love of surprises had come up in conversation more than once. It took Cyborg about fifteen seconds to look at the clock. The team had practically begged her to come over yesterday and then left her at the door. A quick survey of faces revealed that no one had remembered about it.

"I heard what sounded like an interrogation by a freaked out drama queen and decided to make sure you were the ones giving it," her gray eyes dancing mischievously. The opportunity to tease them was too good to pass up. "I realized that ringing the door bell might not be heard. I hope you don't mind me letting myself in?" Aria continued. The look she gave said more, "Come on you bozos, defend yourselves."

"Well then do you know anything about Aerial Ace?" Cyborg asked catching on quickly.

"Yeah, they have the right idea living in the town they protect, must save a lot of gas money." retorted Aria.

This eased the tension in the group. Starfire had the brilliant idea that she, Aria, and Raven could all go to the mall for some shopping. Robin said no, Aria said yes, Raven said be quiet. After much debate, the answer presented itself: the girls would go shopping, end of story. The girls were all set to leave until the glitch appeared: Aria couldn't fly and Cyborg was to busy to drive.

"We will carry you there on a swing," Starfire announced, excited about trying what she had seen in a movie.

"Starfire, you realize that Aria could fall," Raven spoke, carefully testing the young alien's comprehension levels.

"We will catch you if you fall," Starfire promised seriously, looking Aria in the eyes to make sure she understood.

"Don't worry. I trust you guys, although, maybe I could just take the boat I rented to get here?" Aria grinning at their expressions as she pointed outside the window to a small boat. "In fact, why don't we all take the boat?" Aria said gently, "We need to hurry though, shops close at 9 and it's already 4."

While Cyborg went to exercise, Beast Boy looked over at the laptop he had been using. With a wild grin he called, "Robin, check this out!" Robin jumped over the couch to look disapprovingly at Beast Boy on Cyborg's account. "We were kidding yesterday about Cyborg's privacy rights being nonexistent." Robin cautioned.

"Come on, I know you want to know how Aria found out about Cyborg being Cyborg," Beast Boy insisted. Finding the earliest date that Cyborg had found the chat room, he scrolled down until the username Lifter11 popped up. Robin sighed, whether Aria was a friend or not, he still wanted to know why Cyborg had told so much to a complete stranger. They found a private message streak from around February of that year.

Lifter11: Hey do u go by Cy?  
Data_Head19: And how do u know that?!  
Lifter11: U said that your lucky number's 3 &amp; WAY before that you confessed to owning a flip phone at one point. (seriously, out-dated much?)  
Data_Head19: *Sigh* Yeah my nickname's Cy.  
Lifter11: Short for Cyborg?  
Data_Head19: How'd you?  
Lifter11: Called IT! That's why you knew so much about sound wave tech!  
Data_Head19: Please don't tell anyone.  
Lifter11: Hey no sweat! I just made a few educated guesses. I'll tell u my name even.  
Data_Head19: Really?  
Lifter11: Yeah, I'm Aria Leon.  
Data_Head19: YOU'RE A GIRL!?  
Lifter11: Sexist! Go Google me if you think I can't be here!

"I suppose you guys have a really good reason for going through my stuff." Robin and Beast Boy jumped guiltily. Cyborg was standing over them glaring. Beast Boy and Robin confessed quickly just to be over and done with it. They sat down on the couch to talk things over. By the time it was seven o' clock Beast Boy sported two large bumps on the head, but at least Cyborg had calmed down.

* * *

"Remind me why I agreed to come here again?" Aria asked. All around the three teens were various dying materials and shampoos jam-packed together slap-dash, in the mall's new beauty shop. Starfire was pointing excitedly at a magazine add, '_We will personally redo your hair if you don't like it-**for free**_**.**' The various shopping bags littered the floor around them with names of various themed stores on them from T_oo_ C_ute _to **Black Addict**.

"Starfire, I am not changing my hair," Aria said firmly.

"Why do you not wish to change your hair? Is it not fun to you?" Starfire urged.

"Starfire. Not everyone likes to change the way they look." Raven said, standing up for Aria.

"It's just a habit that I don't want to change. It helps keep my hair out of machines. There's memories too," Aria protested.

After a few more witty remarks were exchanged Starfire gave up trying to get Aria's hair cut. They picked up their bags with a new intent to do something fun. Laughing after a bout of karaoke they walked down the street trying to find the nonexistent taxi in the city. The conversation eventually turned to why easy-going Aria didn't cut her hair. The girl turned somewhat pale and stood frozen for a few seconds before answering haltingly.

"Well. You see," Aria sighed before trying again, "My mom was always pushing me to get my hair cut and so I guess this is one last rebellion."

"What happened?" Raven asked quietly, recognizing the use of past tense.

"She died. So did my dad," their new friend said haltingly, "Last year, October 17. Its all I have left." It made Raven and Starfire feel guilty about the line of questioning.

"After all," she croaked, "my aunt and uncle are taking the house, the cars, the furniture, everything."

"How can this be?! Are they not **your** furniture, house and cars?! Is this the way things are done on Earth?!" Starfire cried out in earnest. Nearly shaking the poor girl's head off with her superhuman strength.

"They managed to produce a better will than mine," Aria choked out.

"They forged it," Raven bluntly interjected.

"Yeah, but I can't do anything about it. I'm just a competition mechanic," Aria turned back to her friends cheerfully, "Besides, I don't have a curfew anymore!" They pretended not to see the hastily wiped away tears that were now on her sleeve. Her smile became genuine once they actually found the supposedly non-existent taxi cab. For once the traffic wasn't as horrendous as usual and they made it to the harbor without incident. They found the boat that Aria had rented 'The Songstress' marooned at the far end of the docks.

Dropping their stuff on deck another change of topic caused Raven to go below decks muttering about how stupid it all was. Starfire was questioning Aria relentlessly on what the magazines of fashion meant by this or that. Aria fended her off saying that if she asked one more question then she wouldn't tell Starfire how she figured out Cyborg's identity. Starfire immediately went quiet, her attention rapt on Aria with a piercing gaze.

"I guessed after looking at some of the posts he did. Anyone could have done it. I just did it first," she said to her friend's bewilderment.

"Yes, but can you not determine his given na-" Starfire was silenced by Raven.

Raven distracted the smaller red head with a dark poetry book that she found that the two began discussing intently. The titan girls came off the boat and said good night to their younger friend. It was only when they were inside the tower that the telepath was kind enough to let Starfire out of the duct tape that had been put on her.

"If she doesn't know his name, then she doesn't need to know. She's smart enough to figure it out Starfire. It isn't a crazy idea you can throw out there with her, she has the ability to do it," Raven stated simply.

* * *

*Well I managed to make this story sad. Why do I do these things to you and myself?! Ugh! I could kick myself for writing in so many depressing back stories! At least it explains why she isn't in school right now. If only that.*


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Cyborg stared at Beast Boy and Starfire for five minutes, trying to comprehend what they were saying, "You think that we should throw Aria a party," he finally managed to say. "Yes! She must leave Sunday, so we do not have much time! I am debating whether or not to even attempt Wargulberry Stew as part of the feast." Starfire's over the top enthusiasm was contagious. Cyborg felt himself getting excited, but then stopped himself.

"Dude, why aren't you excited? You're the one who introduced her to all of us. Where's the Cyborg I know?" Beast Boy asked. Cyborg had a very good reason to not throw a party for Aria: she had invited him to one yesterday.

The conversation at 7am

Lifter11: Hey Data, u there?  
Data_head19: Yeah, what's up Lifter? You've been dodging me all day man.  
Lifter11: Well I know you don't like shopping if the newest gaming system isn't involved. I want to make it up to you. After all, you're the reason that I'm staying in this city.  
Data_head19: I'm listening. :D  
Lifter11: Don't get a big head or anything, I saw a flyer about a party on the beach. Free admission, lots of food, Thursday. You game?  
Data_head19: I'm game.  
Lifter11: Good.  
Data_head19: Do I have to wear civilian clothes?  
Lifter11: If you want, I'm not stopping you. Oh, and don't try to imagine me in a swimsuit. :P  
Data_head19: Sure. Google-ing it right now.  
Lifter11: PERVERT ALERT!

"Cyborg, Hel-looo. Party Thursday, party Saturday, easy for the end of summer celebration," Beast Boy was saying.

"Go back a bit BB, you said party on Thursday?" Cyborg asked for clarification with a sinking feeling.

"Yes! Aria invited all of us to go nearly at 10:00 last night," Starfire squealed. Stopping, she turned to Cyborg, confusion written on her face, "Did you not get invited Cyborg, to this party Aria found on the beach?" Starfire had a worried look on her face. Beast Boy realized by this point that Aria must have invited Cyborg earlier and grinned. "So how earlier did she invite you? Eh?" he said with his over the top grin.

"Who said she invited me?" Cyborg calmly began to fix a broken toaster.

"I say she invited you first and we were an afterthought," Beast Boy bet on a whim.

"What ever you say BB," Cyborg said casually.

"I was totally right!" Beast Boy strutted out of the room with a boosted ego.

Cyborg sat down to look at which parts need the most care. Starfire floated anxiously above him. After giving the whole thing a once over he promptly trashed it. Try as he may, Beast Boy still couldn't work tofu bacon in the toaster without the toaster going boom. Starfire touched down to look at Cyborg worriedly. "Cyborg, are you sad that Aria invited the rest of us," Starfire never learned how to say things subtly.

"Nah, its not that. I just... haven't been able to hang out with her much. I wonder if she's avoiding me. I can't think of what would make her annoyed with me," Cyborg confessed.

"No! She would not have done that! She came to the tower and then Raven and I borrowed her to go shopping. Also the team tagged along when you went to greet her on Monday! It would have been unusual for the two of you to go alone somewhere so she invited us today. She talks to us because she knows we are your friends, Cyborg, and she is curious. I am sure this is the way she thinks from spending Tuesday with her," Starfire said in a righteous fury.

Cyborg smiled wearily, "I'm glad that you can tell that Star, but do you mind not telling the others?"

Starfire stared at him confused, "Why should I not? Do you not wish to hang out with Aria as well Cyborg? Have we not been standing in the way of that."

Cyborg shook his head. "Not at all. I guess I don't know Aria as well as I thought."

* * *

Aria met them on the beach a half hour before the band was completely set up. The Titans were wearing either a variation on their costumes or a swim suit with their trademarks added. She stifled a laugh at Raven's cape blowing in the wind over a black swim suit that didn't look to different from her costume except for it being sleeveless. Beast Boy was just wearing some swim trunks, and Robin did the same with his customary mask still on. Starfire was in a rather exposing purple swim suit that caught a lot of eyes. Cyborg was just being Cyborg.

Aria laughed at the difference between them and the crowd that was beginning to gather around the booths. "Well party on the beach doesn't always translate to swimming but I guess you guys took it literally," she smirked, the only one wearing casual clothes among the group: just a pair of shorts and a light blue shirt with straps. Night fell and the DJ booth put a record on and the booths came alive with lights and people, a stream of lanterns went all the way to the edge of the sea foam marking the high tide.

The night was wild and carefree, and it was about to get crazy. Behind the booths for cotton candy and jewelry the Hive Five waited. Jinx looked at Gizmo annoyed, it was his idea to terrorize the civilians the North Beach Festival. Lots of booths to knock over, children to start screaming, food, jewelry and assorted objects to steal. It sounded perfect at the time, however now that the Titans were here the idea was up for last minute debate. It was up to her whether or not they should continue or abandon the idea. She looked around, not many of the items were very pricey, the Titans were here, and- she stared as a girl with coppery red hair sitting next to Cyborg at a ice cream counter.

"That's it," she decided. "So, he has a little girlfriend now. One that looks a little like me, only 'normal', not pink hair or eyes, not a villain. I turned out to be a stupid type cast, huh? Time to say bye-bye to that red head of his. He'll regret tonight," she thought viciously. Her eyes turned a bright pink, she was itching to fight now, "Who cares about the Titans?" she thought. "We're staying here," she said to the Hive Five. "Lets make this party a little more interesting, hmm?" She had the wicked look to her that had gotten her the position of leader, gotten her through the Hive Academy, and would get her through tonight.

The Hive Five members looked at each other, then shrugged. If Jinx said that they were staying, then they were staying. It was time for some fun.

* * *

"Cy, you've got to try this ice cream," Aria said dragging the 19 year old across the street from the pasta vendor that they had recently frequented. Cyborg messily slurped up the pasta and paid the man before Aria could drag him off. Aria was already sitting down at the counter before she remembered the pasta vendor. She attempted to get up but Cyborg grabbed her arm to make her stay.

"I paid the bill," he said in an attempt to calm the girl down. He failed spectacularly.

"But Cy, I'm the one who ate the most. I can't have you paying for my meals while I'm here! It wouldn't be right," she spoke frantically, trying to wiggle out of his grip.

"Come on, you didn't let me pay for pizza, and you can't have that much cash left after shopping with Starfire and Raven,"

"I have plenty of money left," she said offended, "it was Starfire and Raven who really went to town." She noted the look the vendor was giving them and sat down with a sigh. "Well I **was** going to tell you about the vanilla, peach, chocolate, fudge, and caramel ice cream the serve here with big pouring of chocolate syrup down the middle." She sighed looking at the vendor, "He'll clean you out you know, if you let him buy here that is."

"I'll let him, can't be bad for publicity after all, flame bird," said the Italian stroking his goatee with gusto.

"Lorenzo!" cried out the red head enthusiastically.

"You know each other?" Cyborg asked.

"Yes. How have you been, my little _fiamma uccello_? Still sighing over that one fellow like you used to in the shop?" The Italian began to ignore Cyborg in favor of questioning Aria while doling out ice cream to another customer.

"Lorenzo!" she said angrily.

"Don't worry," he said to Cyborg, "it was only a question between old friends," to Aria he said, "I know what your going to ask, still only rumors on what happened exactly. His father took him out of school saying something about an accident. His mother died in it too, no one really knows how. Handsome boy I must admit. Don't know why he should do some thing stupid that would make him unable to come to school. Football captain and star, I must admit a lot of ladies had their eye on him. He did show a chivalrous side though, maybe that's what you remember most. Right, my little _soura_? You should talk with Giuseppe, he'll make you forget about that man you knew."

He heard something and turned around to yell at a younger man, presumably his brother about some piece of machinery. There was an awkward silence between the two friends with the mention of this unknown man that Aria had apparently had feelings for. The fact she had lived here at one point was painfully obvious now, and that it had not come up in conversation made the situation even worse. They watched as Lorenzo cuffed his little brother Giuseppe over the head and sent him back to work with harsh words in Italian.

"I used to live around here," she said finally breaking the silence before their ice cream server could come back with small talk. "Don't ask who he was, it was rude of Lorenzo to bring it up." She looked up, Cyborg meet her with a face that deserved answers. Sighing she continued, "Well, better if it's me who tells you and you promise not to continue this."

She told him about a stupid crush she had in high school, a guy with a sports interest, a future, no interest in school,-"Not like I did either," she chuckled-and three years older to boot. "In short," she finished, "a banana's chance in monkey town. Don't look so concerned. I'm just worried about what happened to the guy. You can ask one more question."

"What was his name?" he asked, fully intent on having a talk with the idiot. Guys like that could lose a lot, "I'm the best example of the worst case scenario," he thought.

Their ice cream came and once Lorenzo wandered off she answered, "His name was Victor Stone," at this she gave a slight grin, "One man, a thousand nicknames." She took a major chunk out of the mound of ice cream that was the _dolci esplosione_. She turned back to him as his mouth was hanging open. "Better put your ice cream in that mouth of yours or a fly will wander in and you'll be eating _insetto esplosione_," she warned with a laugh. Her mischievous gray eyes once again dancing in their mysterious light.

It took her shoving a spoon full of ice cream into his mouth before he closed it. She took in his expression for a moment about to say some thing until his grin came back at the taste. The two of them enjoyed their ice cream at a hazardous rate, gulping it down far to quickly for it to be healthy. Laughing at the chocolate smeared across each others faces. The night once again became a mysteriously wonderful thing bathed in the glow of the moon.

A scream, however, alerted them that the world was not as at peace as they where that night.

* * *

Italian Translated: fimma uccello- flame bird; soura- sister; dolci esplosione- sweet explosion; insetto esplosione- insect explosion.

*I LOVE ICE CREAM... and it was the only foreseeable way to get those two on something like a date. Food is the key to a teenagers heart. Oh, the festival mentioned was modeled after the Steven Restivo Event in San Fransico. It's near the town's 'little Italy' section, but people not native to there would probably not know of it. At least I didn't know of it without the help of Google.*


	4. Chapter 4

**I am so sorry for not posting! One of my proof readers is lazy and the other is just plain scary! That and I have some major event during the summer every other day... I promise to post! No more excuses. I'm emptying out my box and focusing only on this by not allowing there to be anything else. Thank you everyone who has read this, took the time to review this or even did the honor of liking it. Now for what some may have been waiting for or others have just decided to read! Dun, DA-DA,DA!**

**Chapter 4**

Aria and Cyborg reached for their wallets at the same time. Lorenzo stopped them, "Save my machines, and the ice-cream's free," he threw out.

"Good deal, Lorenzo!" shouted Aria as she rushed into the fray. Cyborg stared for a few moments, dumb-founded as Aria's figure became less and less obvious in the crowd. "You'll get used to it, she's a good woman in a crisis. ," said Lorenzo while clapping him on the back, "Just make sure your not on the receiving end."

The Hive Five were wrecking havoc on the food stands at the moment. They kept terrorizing citizens by bursting forth out of different areas, Billy Numerous being the worst of them all. The multiplier was constantly swiping things from the stands and having anyone who tried to stop him be tackled by his others. Gizmo seemed to be waiting for something, or someone. Aria was calmly letting the crowd go by as she worked her way to a stand from which she could hide behind.

Cyborg struggled with the notion of letting a civilian (girl) in on the fight. Aria on the other hand had pulled out a pair of gloves and, yo-yos? After an experimental go, the yo-yos became electric on the come back to the glove. That mischievous look was back, but with more of a determined glint. She looked directly at Cyborg for a few seconds while hitting Kyd Wykkyd; she'd do just fine. Time to focus on Mammoth, who was tipping over that really good lemonade stand where he and Aria had separated from the main group.

Mammoth and Cyborg were at a war of strength, like two bulls in a pen. One bull was significantly smarter and had the idea to trip the other up. That's Mammoth down, now for the rest of the Hive Five to go. Most of the team had got them cornered but Billy Numerous was becoming a problem. Cramped spaces with a person who could clone themselves was a very bad idea.

Cyborg glanced around, Rae was dealing with Kyd Wykkyd. Star was trying to deal with Seemore with BB as back up. Rob was trying to tackle Jinx on his own, if it weren't for Giamo and Billy Numerous. There was no time to think about that. Target the people you know you can get then you can round up the rest later, even if the rest may be over 4000 in number at any given time.

"Hey, Pinkie Pie!" shouted Aria arrogantly with a jerk of her neck. Cyborg stood shocked for a moment as she flung a hand full of pixie stick sugar at the sorceress. Then went to make sure his non-hero friend didn't just sign a death warrant. Or at least make sure it wasn't carried out.

A few seconds earlier from a different point of view. 

"Why am I doing this anyway?" thought Jinx. "I didn't even really like him, I just needed a date for that dance. Then again, as a villainess, the rules dictate that any insult that is uttered it to be eliminated at the source. The fact I was just a type cast anyways, royally ticks me off!" Jinx cast a hex on an unfortunate pasta stand. While she did that she saw Mammoth go flying overhead, the only one who could do that was Cyborg or Beast Boy and she had distinctly seen a green blur go by her earlier. She smiled for the first time in a week, time to take out her anger on the cause of it.

"Hey, Pinkie Pie!"

A pixie stick's contents were thrown at Jinx's devil horns. What?! Jinx spun around at an alarming speed to see that copper headed bimbo that Cyborg was hanging out with earlier was holding an empty pixie stick. She didn't even bother to look at the eye offending filth longer than to throw a few hexes at it. Unfortunately as usual, some thing was in the way, something that could easily be described as a large tin can with legs. Just her luck.

Original point of view again.

Aria watched as _'Pinkie Pie's' _eye's lit up and then for some reason Cyborg's arm came into view. Aria ducked under it and to work with her yo-yo after dropping the pixie stick in the trash. Can't be a litterer after all, that's against the law. Heroing without a license was also probably against the law. Then again, there might not be a license for it in the first place. Whatever! Mischief in the name of the law was the same as stopping in the name of love. Oh that was bad, were the Titans rubbing off already?

Jinx was hit in the gut with- a yo-yo?! That hurt more than a children's toy should, it was like being tasered and hit with a crow bar at the same time. So this chick was a little better than she thought at first. Only a little, anyone who wore shorts that had a key ring with nothing but animal figurines on it couldn't be that bright. Time to one up it with this little- Cyborg interrupted her muttered curses with a right hook.

Aria glanced around as Pinkie Pie fell to the ground by Cyborg's right hook. She saw how much of a problem Billy Numerous was becoming and got a idea. She looked at Cyborg pityingly, he wouldn't understand until latter. Aria put her hands behind her back and walked right up to the multiplier. From behind him she popped in some blue eye contacts and gum. With her best dumb idiot look she tapped him on the shoulder while quickly chewing the gum.

"Hill Bill Dung-head right? You're going to have to pay for that," she said in her most bored shop girl act before popping the gum. Billy Numerous stared at the girl who got his name wrong, didn't fear him, and was unusually attractive for the type of girls he talked to.

"That ain't my name," he said after a few seconds getting multiplying until he surrounded her.

"Well your track record says otherwise, the Titans have beaten you so many times over you probably couldn't make enough clones to equal up. Now for example as well, you really need five clones to take down one civilian girl? Even if there was only one of you, I bet I could take you down easy," Aria said before blowing another bubble.

"Will you listen to this girl, Billy?"

"I can't believe this, Billy, lets take her down."

"No! I'll take her down and then no one can say that I never could beat up a girl!" Billy yelled. The other Billy's bodies went into the one and he turned to glare at the red head. She now had a smirk and a oversized yo-yo in her hand rapidly connected to his face. He fell over backwards and where he was Cyborg snapped into view. The mischievous look confirmed that his 'powerless' friend could hold her own.

"How many nicknames do you have in stock?" he asked, eyebrows raised as he tied up the multiplier with ability restricting rope.

"Plenty, having a dislike for someone means that you tend to think about different ways to insult them without getting arrested for arson or tee-peeing their home," she responded.

"I think that this is going by much faster than we thought," Cyborg teased while scanning the area.

"Well, if we don't hurry then none of us will enjoy the evening while it lasts," Aria responded with a smile.

"Invite your girlfriend for a change, snot for brains?" Gizmo sneered.

Aria took a quick look around at the stalls, ignoring the midget that hung in the air. She found what she was looking for under a gaudy yellow covering. While Gizmo infuriated Cyborg with taunts and zooming in and out of his range on jet pack. Aria collected a basket of her item and walked out with it under her arm. Gizmo began to fly off and Cyborg looked about to explode.

"Egg the Egghead?" Aria asked holding out her basket cheerfully. Cyborg smiled wickedly. This he was going to enjoy. Aria was starting to rub off on him.

"Hey, Gadget!" she shouted to the fleeing criminal.

It took Gizmo a few seconds to stop and turn around at the person who got his name wrong. He was immediately pelted by eggs by two delighted heroes who, at the moment, looked more like criminals. The egg-smeared villain was so angry, the eggs cooked themselves on his little bald head. The pair's grins were big enough to need more room than their faces could hold. Gizmo came down to yell at them in their faces which promptly got him hand-cuffed by one of Aria's adorable animal figurines that doubled as such.

By now the other Titans had succeed in securing Seemore and Kyd Wykkyd, but had yet to find something to tie them up with. Beast Boy sitting on them as a dinosaur would hold for now. Mammoth had gotten up though and was attempting to free Jinx at the moment. A certain glint in Aria's eye's told Cyborg to let her do her thing. She pulled off a lion miniature which would certainly have been adjusted for some purpose that was going to delight Cyborg any moment now.

Aria seemed a bit nervous of this one and carefully set it on the ground. Bits and pieces of the ground began to collect around the toy as it ran. Soon a lion made out of the earth about the size of a van was hurtling down the lane. It rammed into Mammoth knocking the powerhouse to the ground.

"Manny, meet modern golem. Golem, win," muttered Aria.

Cyborg turned to the red head. "Were you sure that was going to work?" he asked his shorter friend.

She folded her arms and leaned against him like he was a lamppost. "It had a three to one fail ratio," she admitted.

"You let it go even with those odds?" he asked startled. Those odds where something he wouldn't bet on when it came to fighting.

"I do things with much lower odds and it turns out fine," she said with a dismissive wave of the hand.

"Like getting the Titans out of the tower without there being a emergency, or you to stop fussing over the T-car," she said walking towards the rest of them. Leaving Cyborg behind yet again to be stupefied. She turned around and called out to him, "What are you waiting for? Come on we have to make sure Pie Eye and Mr. Sunshine are tied up before we can go swimming." He grinned and ran up to walk beside her.

They tied up the Hive Five and saw them carted away before it registered in Cyborg's head. She **had** brought her swimsuit! Then it was a slap in the face as he realized she had been wearing it the whole time as a tank top with shorts over the bottom and he hadn't noticed. Aria took off her gloves and retrieved her figurines that had imprisoned members of the Hive Five. She clipped on her lion figurine before going to the changing stall as Robin was explaining the situation to the cops.

She walked out a few moments latter and noticed Cyborg's staring. She looked at him in confusion for a few seconds then smirked. "Sorry to disappoint you, but my swimsuit isn't the most exposing. It's good for something called swimming though," she said laughing.

Cyborg determined he had to get her back for that last jab. He ran without slowing down as he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. She called down for him to put her down while laughing. Once he got to the dock, he lifted her over his head and threw her in the water. Once she had surfaced he cannon balled in next to her.

The others were surprised at how casual Cyborg was being. This wasn't something they saw all that often, most of the time people either talked their ears off or avoided them all together. They understood how they were friends and everything. It was just something else to hear something and then see it. Well everyone except Robin, he was too busy fixing his hair from the vacuum that Cyborg created while rushing past.

The Titans looked at each other and shrugged. Who were they to judge? Sure, the idea was planted at that point in Starfire's mind that they should be together. Sure, Beast Boy was think of endorsing the twosome with friendly teasing. Sure, Raven was thinking of different ways to leave them alone that would also include her being left alone. This wasn't passing judgement in the slightest. (This is sarcasm to those who are confused.)

Everyone messed around until the sun began to set and they went to the shore again to escape the cold water. Cyborg looked around for Aria and dived back into ocean to talk to her. The string of lanterns that originally dotted the shore where now cast out to sea. Aria lazily floated nearby them, knowing that if she wanted to, she could dive underneath it without a problem and drift out to sea. Cyborg approached her with long strokes.

"So how long of were you planning on staying out her and avoiding everyone?" he asked. Aria maneuvered herself to face him with a sigh. "Long enough to forget about me I was hoping," she said. "Come on, I'll drop the others off and then take you back to your hotel," Cyborg insisted pleadingly.

"Won't that be inconveniencing you though?" she asked in the hopes that he would drop the subject. The idea of him finding out about her sleeping accommodations being not right was something she didn't want to happen. After all, she **was** staying **at** the hotel, just not **in** the hotel.

"You're my friend, it's no inconvenience," he said.

Too soon they were alone in the T-car together. The others had gone to bed dog gone tired. The thought of him finding out that she wasn't sleeping in a bed paralyzed her brain and she couldn't make conversation. The ride was in silence the whole way through the underwater tunnel. Once they were out however the radio was turned on. By the end of Thrift Shop they were finally talking.

Once they got to the hotel that she was staying at Aria jumped out. "Thanks for the ride Cy!" she said before turning around in the mimic of going in. She heard a car door open and shut. Aria spun around to face Cyborg getting out of the car and panicked. "Cy you can't come in!"

"Huh, why not?" Cyborg was being slightly clueless.

"Hello, this is a girl's room, my room to be exact. You can't come in," Aria said with a lot of gesturing.

"Oh," Cyborg's eyes widened as he realized what it looked like, "I'll just walk you to the desk then," he said.

"That is not needed I can take care of myself with bellhops thank you," Aria said shortly.

"Why are you making such a big deal about this?"

"Cy, think about it this way. You- a hero of the city, are arguing with me- a young girl, at a certain establishment. Robin would kill you regardless of if the press caught wind of it," she attempted to reason with him.

"Alright then, think about it this way. I- a hero of the city, am trying to escort a you- a young girl, home after you were at a place that was attacked by the Hive Five. You are obviously not well at the moment, obvious from the gesturing you are doing, and doing my job, wanted to make sure you made it home safely," Cyborg finished.

By the time Aria was able to reply he had walked her inside the building. Aria saw the receptionist that had told her in no uncertain terms that she shouldn't come back in under any circumstances. Cyborg half walked, half marched Aria up to the receptionist's desk. The receptionist glanced up.

"You again? Look, I've already told you, you book the room for a certain amount of time. Weather this fits into your time tables is another story. It's your own fault that you booked it a week too early. Someone already has the room, now, get out or I'm calling security." The receptionist had a finger hovering over a black button as a warning.

Things were frosty between the two of them as they walked out of the building. Aria rubbed her arms in the cold wind. Cyborg walked stiffly. They walked in silence back to the T-car that currently was disguised as a common white van. He opened the door for Aria to get in. Once she was inside he got in but didn't turn on the car.

"You were going to talk about this detail when?" he asked, not looking at her yet.

"Never was the option I was going for. Now you see why I wasn't so eager to swim," she joked, and was meet by Cyborg giving her a 'look' with his arms crossed. Aria sighed, "Ok, I found out the first day after we all had pizza. I didn't tell you about it after that because... I hate being a charity case, or being some sort of beggar. I really didn't want you guys to think that I was some sort of con artist after you're stuff or anything. I know this is a really bad time to say this but I wanted you to trust me. After all we never meet in person and... I... didn't... think about... asking for something... when we've only just meet... in person," she finished.

"First of all, there is no way that you, the one who beat me to their wallet, would ever be a charity case. Second of all, it's ok to ask for some help if things are tight. Third of all, we all trust you. Ok maybe Rob didn't fully trust you, but he's Rob and that's in the past. Fourth of all, you kick butt, but you need to trust us a little more to trust you. Give some credit to us, ok? If it had crossed his mind, I'm sure Rob would have even invited you to be apart of the Titans. Lastly, why are you even going around the country? Did you get a fight with your parents? Cuz' that's cool too. I know I probably won't speak to my dad again on my own," Cyborg took a deep breath.

"If only I had parents to fight with," muttered Aria sadly out the window.

"What?" Cyborg asked, his head jerking to look at her.

"They died in a car accident a year, two months, one week and three days ago. My aunt and uncle kicked me out and swindled me out of my inheritance. I've been living off my inventions every since. The two of them would take my money out of my account and claim my patents if they could. To sum it up, my paranoia rating is up their with Robin's. Now that you know, can you understand why I didn't want to seem too dependent or needy?" She looked back at Cyborg.

"Yeah, but one of these days, you are gonna have to let me buy the ice-cream. Just one last question," Cyborg said before starting the car.

"Yes?" Aria said squirming, ready for any humiliating thing for him to ask. Swallowing her pride just this once.

"Where's you're stuff, and how do you know it's not been stolen?" he said.

"Drive around the block, it's on top of the roof of the hotel." She caught his look, "Hey, no one would look up there."

"No one would want to go up there in the first place," he said dubiously.

Cyborg parked the car for a few more minutes on the other side of the building. Aria scaled the building quickly, leaving Cyborg to wonder where she learned the skill. Three bags landed down in the alleyway upright. Aria soon followed, only jumping after there was only three feet left of the ways however. Cyborg opened the trunk and help Aria with the bags.

Aria stopped suddenly then she turned to Cyborg and hit him, hard. "What was that for?" he asked looking at her angrily. "That's for earlier today, when you took the hit for me with Jinx. All gentlemanly behavior is suspended when in a fight, got it?" she scolded. Cyborg remembered that, it only needed a little repair work wait, when in a fight? "Do you get in fights often?" he asked.

"I'm just saying for future reference. If you trust me, then trust me to kick someone else's butt without getting in the way so I won't have to kick yours," she said with a jut of her chin.

Cyborg thrust his hands in the air before getting in the car, not before opening a door for Aria however. Aria looked a lot more relaxed now that this was off her chest. "Now I'm sorry for hitting you. I should have done it when it was needed," Aria said. Cyborg gave her a dumbfounded look. She looked back at him then relented, "I'll go ahead and make breakfast tomorrow, that sound ok? I make food that you can eat in exchange for crashing at your place until Sunday."

"Breakfast consists of what exactly?" Cyborg's experience with girls cooking was never good as it was based off Starfire and Raven's nearly killing them all many times over.

"Toast, egg, bacon, Orange juice, maybe waffles or pancakes and that tofu stuff Beast Boy obsess over," she described.

"Why the tofu?" moaned Cyborg.

"You don't have to eat healthy but let him," she said, "Oh, and your blue mold story rates high in the horror department so we buy the food now."

"So long as you make waffles," Cyborg sulked in a voice that needed deciphering since his lips were pushed out like a fish.

"Your right it was a dumb question," laughed Aria as she directed him to the flea market. Her smile had returned in full Cyborg was pleased to notice.

They talked throughout the ride back and the elevator ride up. Between them they had a few bags of good but cheep food from the flea market. They were still talking when they ran into the rest of the Teen Titans who Cyborg said would be "asleep". "This is going to be a long night," Aria thought to herself with a sigh. The Titans began their interrogation, starting with Cyborg on a segment of the news showing him and Aria at the flea market.

* * *

After writer's block you now have an enormous chapter to read and enjoy. Thank you and good night. Also I am not trying to be mean to Jinx, I love Jinx, she is my favorite villain. It's just too easy to make her mad. Please review so I know I am doing this right!


	5. Chapter 5

**I AM SORRY FOR NOT POSTING! THIS IS A REALLY LONG CHAPTER TO MAKE UP FOR THAT.**

**Chapter 5**

Aria woke up staring at a mutated worm drooling in front of her that was ridiculously cute. She sat up and looked at the bug wiggling on the couch that she did not remember sleeping on before. Instead of wondering where she was and how she got there, Aria picked up the adorable monstrosity in front of her and cuddled it. There was no question in her mind, even if this turned out to be some whacked out dream that she woke up screaming from, this bug was going to have a model of itself on her key ring.

"Ok, you are adorable, but what are you or I doing here?" she muttered before setting down the strange worm. She studied the area around her; 1 huge flat screen TV, 1 semicircle couch, 4 gaming systems-top of the line, 1 coffee table, her bags, 1 wriggling over sized silkworm, 6 brown bags with a flea market sticker. Wait! That reminded her. She sat up straight. She was in the Titan Tower. She had also promised Cyborg to make waffles and it was 6:45 am. She needed to get started right away.

Cyborg woke up at 7:30 right on time with his internal clock. He walked down the hall and smelled something delicious wafting his way. Cyborg floated down to the kitchen and living room where Aria had stacked up 5 piles of 10 or more waffles on each place and was still cooking more. His mouth dropped open. Rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn't dreaming, he stared at the small redhead cooking.

"Oh, hey Cy! You're plate isn't finished yet, tell me 15 or 20 enough or should I just keep cooking?" Aria asked cheerfully.

"Am I dreaming?" the half robot asked deliriously.

"No, I'm more of a morning person-so long as I have three cups of coffee, that is. Now should I just round it out to 25? Your reputation kind of precedes you in this department." She smirked at his bug eyes. Her attention turned back to the waffles. Her eyes rose up alarmingly. "Shoot! Sorry, Cy. This one's gonna be a bit burned," she said, wincing.

The others woke up and followed their noses to something a hungry stomach would enjoy. Piles of waffles with maple, strawberry and chocolate syrup on hand, as well as strawberries, blueberries, and black berries galore met their eyes. Tall glasses of orange juice and lots sausages on four of the five plates completed the picture. The only thing missing was Raven, who decided that her sleep was lacking. A plan was quickly hatched to get her out of bed.

"Raven wake up! It's time to eat," shouted Beast Boy. Incoherent sounds followed from Raven's room that could be deciphered into a "Go away!"

"Well, I guess she'll just have to miss waffles," Aria sighed.

"Wha...?" Raven was starting to coming back to life from a sleep-like death with the promise of waffles.

"Such a shame. There's SO many of them made JUST for her. Waffles covered in maple syrup, chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, whip cream, powdered sugar, and fruit. Yum-yum." Aria cracked one eye open to see Raven sitting in her chair with a napkin around her neck and a fork in each hand. Aria smiled, that trick never failed her yet.

The feast began. Aria had a made good estimate of how much they could eat; not an exact amount, but close. After Starfire, Beast Boy and Cyborg were satisfied, which took fifteen more waffles, Aria made an announcement. "I know that it is impossible to take him, BUT who's the owner of this little cutie? And can I make a model for my key chain?" Her eyes bulged while she was bounced up and down excitedly holding out the mutated worm.

"Silky?!" shouted Starfire and Beast Boy at the same time standing up. They had to sit down quickly of course because of just how many waffles they had eaten. Starfire was the first to recover of the two. "You wish to make a model of Silky for your chain that carries things that turn into larger things and occasionally into handcuffs?" she asked.

"Yeah! I've been needing a new model and I was thinking that this model could blow up balloons for balloon animals! I keep on seeing little kids crying on trains and wanna cheer 'em up!" Aria said excitedly with little flowers somehow appearing around her head.

You could hear the chirping of crickets with how silent the room was. Their plates were cleaned off and yet their mouths were open. The same girl who could make a yo-yo into a dangerous weapon wanted to make balloon animals for little kids?! That person was one in the same?! What the heck was going on in the universe?!

"What? I could learn how to make them," she said with a pout.

"Oh. Can I just say that I thought you were going to come up with some kind of crazy-strong, ultra, ray gun thing and put Silkie's face on it," Beast Boy said with lots of hand movements.

"Unless you can think of a way to form cuteness into a beam, I think not. This guy's just too adorable for me to not want him on my chain. Why do you think I only make weapons anyways? I design engines, garage door openers, state of the art locks, computers, and design things for mass transportation: give me some credit! I'm not a weapon's expert. Heck, I can't be. I hate guns, explosives and knives way too much to make them. This stuff may not be kid friendly, but it doesn't have the purpose strictly to hurt people," Aria said crossing her arms with a glare.

"Oh," Beast Boy said. They all had just gotten a taste of Aria's tongue lashing and did not want to experience it again. Only Cyborg seemed unaffected and continued talking to her until she wasn't bristling with anger anymore. The group's attention wandered when subatomic partial manipulators and cleaner energy sources were on the menu between the two techies. It seemed as though they both brightened up considerably by the time fighting practice rolled around.

After taking a glance at their fitness room, Aria got the idea to maybe sit this one out as none of this stuff was designed to come down to her size. They talked a bit before warming up completely. After seeing them warm up, Aria called them out. She had heard them say that Cyborg was impenetrable and wanted to fix that error in thinking.

"Actually you do have a weakness, Cy. Same goes to you Beast Boy, and you Robin," she said fearlessly.

"What? Get out of town," Cy said with a wave of his hand.

"It's true, I've got an idea. Robin, I'll pinpoint Cyborg's, Beast Boy's and your weaknesses if you let me fight you. I won't use any of my toys though you can. Deal?" she implored of Robin. He thought about it for a moment. Aria seemed so full of surprises that it wouldn't hurt to see another. She hadn't shown any talent at hand to hand combat, but the signs were all there. Besides, anything that would strengthen them would be of help.

"Cyborg. Beast Boy. You think we should do it?" Robin asked.

"I'm up for that," Cyborg said putting down his weights.

"Sounds cool," Beast Boy said shape shifting out of a velociraptor to join them.

"Good. We begin when Raven gives the mark," Aria said confidently.

The group walked out of the fitness room and into a large area designed to train their battle skills. Aria let them surround her on all sides before Raven began the count down. "Three. Two. One. Go," she said stoically. Starfire began the biting of nails that she knew was a bad habit.

Beast Boy changed into a rhino to rush her along with the Robin who was pulling out his staff while Cyborg hung back for a bit. Aria waited until Beast Boy was only a few moments away before she jumped on top of him. Once there, she turned around and grabbed his ears, dug her foot into his neck, changing his direction so he would hit Robin.

They met in only a few seconds, barreling over like bowling pins. Aria reached out and plucked the bo staff out of Robin's hands before jumping away. She sprinted towards Cyborg with the easy grace of a wild cat. He, however, had the good sense to fight back with his lasers before she got too close. When she got too close after dodging his lasers with a series of rolls and zig-zags, he put up his hands for a fight.

Aria did not let him fight her with his fists, however. She dug the staff into the ground and maneuvered herself to kick him underneath the jaw. Cyborg saw stars before he fell down backwards. Aria turned to Raven and Starfire, who were looking around. Robin was underneath Beast Boy who was on top of him in rhino form with a serious bruise. Cyborg was on his back and Aria was there with Robin's weapon sitting on it cross legged. She had won easily.

After a few minutes, the boys got up with a groan each. Aria handed Robin his staff back, and then looked at them like a kindergarten teacher.

"We lost."

"Because..." Aria prompted.

"We didn't coordinate our attacks."

"Good. Anything else?"

"You took my weapon, not so that I'd be without it, but so that you could get your reach up to Cyborg's level," Robin figured out.

"The boy wonder learned something from little ole me? Wow," Aria said as sarcastically as she could muster after a fight. She wasn't impenetrable to being tired either.

"Now I'll explain if Robin won't tell what your weaknesses are," Aria said with a nod towards Robin. Robin shook his head.

"First, Beast Boy. You have ears on the side of your head in most of your forms. If someone gets on top of you, you don't stand a chance of controlling your movements or your momentum. Second, Cyborg. You may have a ton of prosthetic armor but your nerves aren't damaged. Your jaw has all the nerve connections like everyone else so it will hurt, a lot since you aren't used to it. Lastly, Robin. Your fighting style's perfect. Your weakness is your pride. I never said that Star and Rae couldn't join in, you assumed that since I wanted to fight you that it would be only you. The Teen Titans is made up of five not three, and the girls would have completely turned the fight around if you had them in it. The main point is, never assume anything-especially with someone who nicknames villains after characters in children's shows about ponies," she grinned.

Then she gave them back the virtual simulation room to use. Raven was going first today, which was good because the boys still needed time to nurse their bruises.

Beast Boy turned to Cyborg in a daze. "You meet her where again?"

* * *

Cyborg lifted a boulder over his head and started to move towards the projection of Mammoth. Suddenly, Aria went cold and her eyes drastically widened. She snatched Robin's staff from him and ran across the field. They didn't even have time to shout for her to stop. She was already there. Cyborg had finished throwing the rock at the projection with good accuracy when she hit him.

Cyborg was knocked to the ground from behind, leaving him unable to block the series of hits that followed after. Aria looked like she was possessed by something as she kept on beating him with Robin's staff. The others stopped the simulation and rushed over. Raven put a hand on Aria's shoulder to stop her and felt an alarming amount of terror that was close to maddening.

"Aria, STOP!" Raven shouted in Aria's ear. That shook her out of whatever trance she was in and Aria's eye's lost their demented, glazed over look. The normal Aria was back and her eyes widened at the scene around her. She noticed the staff in her hands, the bent metal, Cyborg's armor scratched, and the looks everyone was giving her. Robin's staff clattered to the floor as Aria ran.

"Ari-" Cyborg attempted to call out. He was fine, it was just a couple of scratches, and he wanted to tell her so. Raven put a hand up to stop him. The Titan's were confused. Aria was usually a cheerful girl who like anything that had to do with machinery, cute animals, or sarcastic comments. The Aria they had just seen was not an Aria they were familiar with.

"I'll take this one," Robin said calmly. He walked outside of the Virtual room and found Aria behind some of the rocks on the shore sitting with hands over her head. He walked over and sat next to her.

"Aria, how did your parents die?" Robin asked. How someone's parents died is just as important as the fact that they're dead. Batman's drilled in training and basic story of his life prove it.

"In a car accident," Aria said avoiding his gaze.

"That does not explain that," he said with a jerk of his head toward the Tower. "Tell me the whole story, I won't tell anyone unless it's dangerous not to tell them. Promise."

"My parents had planned a surprise trip to Gotham City on October 19th last year. We were all having fun. My dad complained about the traffic. I complained about the music. my mom complained about us complaining. It was great. A no-name villain jumped into the street. We couldn't leave our car with all the traffic and the fighting outside. My dad tried to swerve around him and failed. Batman and Superman were distracted by three other enemies, two on Batman, one on Superman. The big guy on the ground saw our car and picked us up over his head.

Superman was pinned down by the floating villain and another that popped out of no where. The guy on the ground that picked us up squished the front of the car like a tin can. I was in the back. It was like time slowed down once I was in the air, hurtling towards Superman. He caught the car and looked like he was about to throw it back until he saw me in the back seat terrified.

He flew me away to a high building and opened the door like it was nothing. I got out shaking and sank to the ground. He looked at me and it was clear he wanted to help me but he had a job to do. Turns out Wonder Woman was nearby but got to the fight too late to help. She did see me though. She said it was alright to cry, there was nothing I could do in that situation and that she would not allow them to get away.

That isn't it though, it seemed that fate had decided to be even crueler. The fight was all over the news. I had to watch looking at the psychopath's face as he killed my parents over and over again. My mom's arm was stuck out of the car, you could see her wedding ring. I am never going to forgive either the villain or the news reporters who didn't do anything. I don't blame the Bats or Superman. They saved my life and that's something I will never forget.

I was powerless, though- helpless when I watched them die in front of me. I never want to be that helpless ever again or let anyone else go through what I had to. My aunt and uncle took me in and I guess you know the story from there. That's why I make all this stuff. I have the smarts and the ability to stop that stuff from happening, so I got out of the circuit. Somethings I share, some things I don't. I can only trust myself to do things the right way and not let people terrorize others using my work," Aria finished solemnly. At the end, her voice had stopped shaking.

Robin absorbed this information calmly. This was so much like his situation, being helpless when people need help-having things out of your control. It was what made people into heroes. That wasn't true, though. It was what separated the heroes from victims of circumstance. She had to work through it on her own. No Batman, just a greedy aunt and uncle that tried to use her. Suddenly it was easy to see why she and Cyborg were drawn together. Both of them had common ground to talk about lighter topics. More importantly, though, both of them knew how much you can lose and how much you could help.

However, that moping look on her face would never do. He would feel bad for not being able to cheer her up. That, and Cyborg would kill him if she returned upset. Cyborg would not be a good new topic. In a desperate attempt to make the conversation lighter, he picked up one of her key ring animals. The deer with big eyes didn't look that threatening. Then again none of them did.

"I see, so that's why. What does this one do?" Robin asked quickly.

"Oh, that one?" Aria turned back towards Robin. She took it back from him and then slowly turned the deer figurine to face him. Robin began to sweat. Was she was going to kill him for asking? She slowly pressed a button on it's back and- Robin was hit by a bunch of bubbles while Aria was trying not to laugh at his expression.

"Sometimes you just need bubble therapy. I'm surprised it's not a thing yet. Bubbles have always been something to make you feel good," she said holding the button down with one hand and with the other waving a finger in the air.

Beast Boy jumped out of his hiding place in cat form to swat at the bubbles. At one point, he forgot himself and ate one, sticking his tongue out in disgust. Aria laughed then stopped, "BB, how long were you listening to that?"

"Uh, the beginning?" he said sheepishly.

"Okay. Everyone come on out," she said. The entirety of the Teen Titans left their hiding place behind the rocks, feeling foolish. Aria got up and dusted herself off. The Titans braced them selves for the mother of all tongue lashings when she took a breath. She held it and looked at them through one eye-a quivering bunch of children.

"As you all know now, I see no reason for it to get in the way of things. In return for spying though..." they stood at attention once more, "You will be required to help me build a sand castle, and it's going to be big," she said with her mischievous glint back.

The building of the mega-awesome sand castle, as Beast Boy began to call it, commenced. It was about as tall as Robin at its highest point and as wide as Starfire laying down at its farthest with little people in a siege as well as well a pirate ship. They all gathered for a group photo at the end of it, in various positions: damsels in distress for Cyborg and Robin; Raven and Starfire the soldiers; Beast Boy the Hun; Aria the pirate. At one point that evening, Robin got a mermaid tail, Raven learned the joy of being half octopus, and they all had to go back in soon enough to deal with the mega sunburns Robin had.

Aria held Cyborg behind for a bit.

"Cyborg, please be honest. Did I hurt you at all today?" she asked with her brows furrowed.

"No, Ari. You kidding? All you did was scratch me," he said with a too-big smile.

"I'm not just talking about bruises Cy! Tell me the truth," she demanded while looking into his eyes.

"You didn't ever mention how your parents died," he stated.

"I didn't want you to feel guilty. I still don't. I didn't think that you would want to know something like that because of the muscle man," Aria said sadly.

"You didn't see me back there. You saw him, right?" he asked desperately. If she saw him and still attacked, that would kill him.

"Yeah, and I don't ever want to see him again. Will you help me, Cy? I want to be able to see you not him," she said.

"I will if I can. How where you thinking to do that?" He really didn't wan't to hurt her.

"Just keep lifting rocks over your head, don't stop for a minute, until I stop seeing him in my head," she said looking directly into his eyes.

"Can you handle that?" he asked tentatively. At this, she smirked.

"If I can beat you up with Robin's puny stick, then I can take a few rocks going over your head," Aria laughed.

"Speaking of which, you'll probably owe him a new one now," he said after gesturing to the elevator.

"Maybe we can use the one up his butt," she suggested on the way to the elevator.

"Sounds good. Just don't let him hear you say that," he warned extending his arm to escort her to the door.

Instead, one look lead to another. And, before the other Titans knew it, the two were racing to the elevator which had been so generously left open. Cyborg won and gloated. Aria threatened to wipe his data on Monkey Racers Three. He went real quiet after that. Then, she offered to fix the controller that had worn out, everyone cheered.

The Titans were about to relax and eat lunch when the alarm went off overhead. Adonis was at the observatory causing mass panic with some strange device. The Titans rushed out the door, looks like it would be takeout. The gust of wind meant that Aria have to spend a few moments fixing her hair.

"I'll stay here then," Aria said to herself. Once the other were completely out the door, Aria went to the bathroom with her bags. Silkie objected when she took out her suit.  
"What? It's not like I lied! I didn't specify the time is all," she said as she slipped on her suit. After the helmet she beat her hand just below the throat. The suit expanded into the manly form and stiffened. Extra reach, identity hidden, and not expensive at all.

It was time to kick some butt, Aerial Ace was really good at that.

*Ta-da! Hope you've enjoyed it thus far, this fanfiction is far from over. Muhahah! :D Oh! I'd also like to thank everyone who has commented thus far, it was super nice of you. I know that this is extremely irrelevant to the chapie, but if anyone has trouble picturing Aria, just imagine a lion cub with big and cute gray eyes. Hence the last name 'leon', or lion in French. Sorry for spouting useless info. ^_^* It's been forever with school and a bunch of other bother adding to it. This must have really depressed some of you guys.


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry if this is really different from my previous chapters, there was a mistake I made in updating chapters and the original was lost. I will need time to get it how I want it again but let this just be a guide to get you back to the story. I remembered how I wrote it at the beginning and near the end but the middle's not so hot.**

**Chapter 6**

Aerial Ace flew through the city trying to pinpoint the source of the fight. Tapping into the radio waves that were ever present, what she heard was alarming. The Teen Titans had left the observatory and were in pursuit of Adonis and Gizmo, who was normally affiliated with the Hive 5. When ever a villain left their respective team it was serious. They only did it if they had a point to prove or if they had been feed up with the team to leave despite the fear of retribution.

Due to the supreme idiocy that was uncharacteristic of Gizmo she believed that he was going to make a point. When she arrived the situation was more unusual than most of the things she had dealt with in the past. Apparently there was some sort of device that Gizmo had made in order to hijack ATMs and generally make chaos with any sort of electronic. She would have to stay away from that. Adonis was the one holding it though so maybe it wasn't such a threat.

Other than that though, the Titans were holding their own and living up to their reputation very well. Firefighters and police were working on the crowds. Aria was secretly impressed, she may not have operated like they did but they did what they did well and it helped people every day. Suddenly during the minute that she had taken to reflect about their capabilities the fight had turned around. At the moment that the two of them had been cornered, Adonis had managed a lucky shot on Cyborg and Gizmo had knocked out the remaining Titans with a mass stunner. In short, they had messed with her friends and, no matter how tentative that title might be, they weren't going to get away with it.

Aerial dropped down from above to land on the back of Adonis. Quickly touching the button that made the suit fall apart with a foot, then used him as a spring-board to go towards the short villain with a spoofed up magnetic disputer. Gizmo grinned as he saw the white clad hero approach, this was going to be pay back from the race. Gizmo never got his pay back as the law of justice, and longer reach, prevailed. He was later going to wake up with a very large bump on his head, a killer headache, an angry cellmate, and a note that would make any respective shrimp angry. It was short and to the point, just like him.

Cyborg had parts of him falling off and spewing oil every where as the virus turned his blue colored prosthetic red as a danger warning. The thing that Aria hated more than anything was a lucky shot, so she had to make sure this one in particular didn't count, her best friend's life was at stake. Aerial Ace took in the scene at a glance from the firemen's point of view, Aria was trying to think of the only place she knew of that would be able to fix both the physical and mechanical problems Cyborg was dealing with and that was Star Labs. It was over three hours away in Star City by car and going the speed limit. That distance would be nothing with no traffic or speed limit to watch out for.

First though she had to take care of the team. Beast Boy had shrunken down to his regular form from a T-Rex thankfully and the only real problem that stood in her way was that the car was locked. Aria mentally told herself that if she ever encounter Cyborg when he was conscious as Aerial Ace she would apologize for this. Before she could talk her self out of it she pulled out her emergency knife and cut open the door handle and promptly began hot wiring the car, programming it to stop first at the pizza joint they all had gone to and then to Star Labs if they choose so. Once she had committed her first car vandalism she began to shove the Teen Titans in gracelessly.

She quickly shut the door, trying desperately not to think about how upset Cyborg would be when he found out about the handle. Instead she quickly said a message that was printed out for the fire fighters, stating Cyborg needed a tarp under him in order to seek medical attention. The firefighters quickly responded on the basis that someone who worked efficiently would need them to be efficient too. Aerial Ace headed back to the roof top of the hotel that she had been staying at.

Once she had figured out what a great hiding place the roof made, she had taken two suit cases out of a complex chain of mailing routes to Washington. In the two suitcases was the things that might save her best friend's life if she hurried. Ignoring the bug-eyed janitor, she took the titanium suit cases down to street level. Cyborg, in his many parts, was on the tarp, as had been instructed, ready to be taken to Star City. She set the cases down on either side of the tarp before folding it in a specific way, letting the customary designs latch onto part of the fabric for the booster rockets that would get her there a little bit faster.

It was time to ditch the hang-glider and go to the wings. They were shaped roughly like a butterfly's with bullet prof fabric stretched taunt between two curvy metal rods. Since they were mechanical they could take a lot more than biological wings could, Cyborg was more than a bit on the hefty side though and it wasn't like his enormous appetite was going to help sighed internally.

She had damaged his car, if the suit's wings malfunctioned because of his weight then it was probably divine retribution. Or she just needed to avoid situations that involved carrying a huge guy that was already heavy without the metal prosthetics that dominated his body. Number one way to do that, make sure he survived so that the opportunity to reprimand him about this instance could come about. The best way to make sure that he survived was to get him to Star City and not have mental discussions like this with herself when lift off was underway.

Aerial Ace disappeared into the complicated mess of a city that had sky scrappers at every corner. It took a precious few minutes to navigate out into open space where she could turn on the rockets in the suit cases. She blasted forward a dangerous speeds to Star City.

It felt strange to go to a city not to save it, but to have someone be saved. She only hopped that this would work.

Star Labs was easy to spot from the air. Once it was only a few feet in front of her she lost all pretense of grace as she dropped the last few yards to the ground. Fortunately a large man was heading in to the building. Cyborg hitting the pavement via the bag alerted the man to their presence.

Silas Stone turned after hearing a large thump behind him. A white suited hero with large sack was trying to get in to the building, a red prosthetic arm poked its way out of it. He stiffened as he saw his sons arm was sticking out of the sack, it wasn't the usual blue but a bright red. The bag did not look like it carried a body, it only carried parts with stains at various intervals.

Without the slightest hesitation he opened the door for the boy who had come to save Victor. On second thought, maybe it wasn't a guy as despite the obviously masculine figure he couldn't lift the 400 pound- wait, there was the problem. Silas Stone heaved the bag containing his son onto his shoulder and waited for the hero to change.

A minute or two latter a coppery haired girl ran up, definitely not a boy. She paused panting for a few moments.

"Aria-Leon,-nice to-meet you.-Are you- Victor Stone's dad?" she asked after glancing curiously at his name tag.

"If she knew anything then she wouldn't call him by first and last name," he decided. She looked familiar though, some science magazine, competition application, maybe even Victor's yearbook?

"Yes. I'm Silas Stone," he said after holding the door open for her. Once they got inside she cut any formalities.

"So where do we go to keep Cyborg from dying?" she asked bluntly.

"Down the hall, you'll need a lab coat," was the automatic reply that came out of his mouth. She included herself in the mix without a second thought, and didn't mind leaving tact out of it. Silas considered it a mixed blessing that she was here. She knew what she was doing if that suit was anything like what he thought it was and built without a government grant. Yet.

Silas Stone gave his son a sad look. After going to Jump City for a week Victor came back, collected his things and didn't bother a backwards glance when he had come home. It had been years since then, and they had only grew more apart. Aria looked up at Mr. Stone and caught the look he gave Cyborg. It was one of pity and regrets.

"He doesn't think that Cyborg will make it," Aria thought suddenly. This angered her. There was no way some scientist that didn't know her or Cyborg was going to think for even a second that he wasn't going to make it. Some adult wasn't going to pass judgement on if Cyborg had a chance, he had a chance. That's why she had come here, to give him that slim chance.

Silas Stone had his back turned to her as he moved the pieces of his son into a more human shape then a bundle of parts. He couldn't see the fuming red head behind him so he was surprised to say the least when he turned around. Aria shoved past Silas Stone rudely. Silas had only seen the look on her face in relation with Victor once before.

It was the exact expression he had just before he had turned Victor into Cyborg to save his life.

*Finished. The middle isn't where I'd like it, but this is the best I could do when to make the story get moving. Note to self- never have candy nearby when you are redoing chapters.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"No! I won't let him die because of some stupid virus!" said Aria while giving a death glare at Silas Stone. After shoving rudely past him she pulled out some sort of suitcase with her. He stopped and stared, jaw open, for a few moments. No one had ever used a death glare on him like that, not anyone that wasn't a teenager at least. Maybe that was apart of the problem between him and Victor, if just a part. He decided to jump in when she had finished her code working. It made him wonder what was in those suitcases as the code seemed part virus protection and part virus itself.

Aria pulled the suit case's contents. Mr. Stone was unfamiliar Aria's particular type of projects when left to her own devices and saw two by two pairs of animal figurines come out of the cases with cords connecting them to the computer. Baffled at her commandeered computer commands he watched as a new program latched itself onto the terminal and he saw the tab ARC PROGRAM PROTECTION SOFTWARE pop up. A few more animals joined the hub with even more complex cords to put online. Finally connecting Cyborg to it and hurrying onward to prevent contamination.

CONNECTION COMPLETE. BEGIN RUNNING ARC PROGRAM ON SELECTED TERMINAL? The screen asked.

YES. Aria typed back.

PROCEEDING TO CLEAN, SECURE, THEN INSTALLING PROGRAM PERMANENTLY ON "CYBORG TERMINAL". The screen notified.

Cyborg's red mechanical eye clicked open as the program began its work on him. Aria motioned in silence for Mr. Stone to help her put Cyborg's head together again completely. It was a difficult task as a wrong move could completely change Cyborg's personality or make it so that he wouldn't wake up again. After the head had been cleared out the two stood there waiting for a sign of life.

Aria looked at Mr. Stone, who was looking very out off balance at the moment, and decided that he should probably go back to work in order to not loose this job. You can't just drop everything to deal with one super hero, even if you probably should, but not if you wanted to keep your job. She walked over to the computer and fixed the wires to a better position. She didn't bother to look up before shooing him out of the room.

"You know, you do have a regular paying job Mr. Stone. I'd advise you to keep it by not just standing around when there is most likely experiments to be done," she paused in her work for another moment, "I think I have things almost squared away here. I designed it for the government after all. The algorithm's key is 97 characters. It should be pretty efficient."

"I'll leave him to you then. You wouldn't be the genius software designer that some of the higher ups have been talking about?" Mr. Stone asked while preparing to leave.

"I don't know what you're talking about Mr. Stone, all that information is classified," she said jokingly. Silas Stone returned to his working thinking that his son was in good hands. Aria was perfectly oblivious to this as she took out the sole occupant of the other case. Inside was what looked to be a doll with a cord coming out of its back. The doll's clothing was set to look like a mix of old fashioned armor and a dress with a helmet covering everything but the eyes. She plugged the cord in causing a new message to appear on the screen.

JOAN OF ARC HUNTER PROTOCOL HAS BEEN ADDED. AT WHICH TIME SHOULD PROGRAM BECOME ENGAGED? The computer asked.

AFTER TERMINAL HAS FINISHED INSTALLATION. Aria typed back.

ESTIMATED TIME OF FINISHING PART ONE OF ARC PROGRAM IS 20 MINUTES. The computer shot back.

Once the program had been running for about 16 minutes Aria set herself to reassembling Cyborg's body while the Arc Program ran checks inside of him. Considering how bad it had been when he had been spewing out oil and losing arms and legs on the way there it was going to be a challenge. Not to mention the fact that the table had been designed for someone who had at least 5" 3 and the lab coat the same. Sometimes she wished that at least the parts that were supposed to come off had bothered to stay in their respective pieces, or that she didn't have to climb over an arm or leg to get to the head without tripping over some body part or this big lab coat.

This would take a while, her verses her program on how to get a guy up and running was an unexpected challenge. After rolling up her sleeves to her wrists one half an hour with the help of her little lion key chain figurine she had managed to get him into only five big pieces. The ones that could come apart when necessary, not the jumbled up mess of before. Fitting them together was something only Beast Boy could get wrong, at least that's what Cyborg had told her. She had at least a little more faith in his ability to put people back together when you had them in the basic arms, legs and torso... Maybe.

The last piece put in place Aria felt a job well done. After she dusted off her oil smeared hands on the over sized lab coat that she dropped on the floor. She still didn't believe it was the smallest one they had on hand, but that was besides the point. "Ding," went the program, she went down to unplug the program managing to sit down to get off. Unfortunately the program had an unexpected side effect of causing Cyborg's circuitry to go to the most relaxed form after maintenance: sleep mode.

Aria had become Cyborg's new pillow the instant he turned over. Desperately she attempted to disentangle herself before remembering Silky had been in a similar situation that morning. His solution? _Wriggle out of choke hold._ Aria's attempts only made her locked in more tightly, there was no way that she was getting out of here soon. That meant no time to clean up the ARC Pass Keys or check on the soft ware that she had bought online earlier. This was going to be a long night and it was only 11 o-clock.

* * *

Aria finally managed to get out from her accidental prison Cyborg had unintentionally made around 11 at about 1 o-clock. Two sleepless hours trying to get comfortable or raging in her mind about the cruelties of fate against her had made her slightly desperate. Using the most advanced algorithms* she planted carefully a few little 'surprises' and planned her revenge that he would find out about the next day. Due to this series of practical jokes she managed to get out, however given the fact that he yawned and sleepily began to move into an upright made her somewhat panicky.

Cyborg opened his eyes with no feelings of pain or sore muscles, which was unusual considering his previous battle had really taken it out of him. Circuits, wires, nothing had been spared as far as he could tell. Now it his scanners said he was fine, when a moment ago they had been going haywire. Aria was closing out of some programs as far as he could tell, had it really been that serious to stay up so late?

He tensed for a moment as he realized where he was- STAR LABS. The place where he had been born in a sense, where his father worked day in and day out. The man he never wanted to see ever again, at least he knew why he was here though. The leading place in medical and mechanical science was the obvious place whenever you were hit by a modified toy gun. Of course Aria thought of it, he hadn't told her anything about it's meaning to him personally. Wait, how did Aria get him here? He would weigh more than her even without all of the metal.

Aria for her part was pretending that she hadn't been in close quarters with her friend for the past two and a half hours by rapidly closing out the tabs she had up. Noting that everything was in place she breathed a sigh of relief the Hive 5 were probably going haywire with being locked in there rooms, having there plans sent in advancement to the police who had been mysteriously contacted about 2 hours ago by an unknown source. What the government would pay to have such a thing in their hands, it was actually only five cents. With the agreement that the security measures would be available to every computer, phone and car in America.

Even if they didn't do as the contract said she had two or three back-ups in place for it, sometimes being good meant that you could be a little evil. Cyborg seemed a little confused. If he thought that she (Aria) was the one that brought him here, then she could always say that she (Aria) do it and just say that Aerial Ace did it, without telling him that she (Aria) was Aerial Ace of course. The perfect 'if, then' statement that would have gotten her an A in Science had she bothered with the class. She turned with a small smile to Cyborg.

"Hey, Champ. I wouldn't suggest sitting up yet unless I'm wrong about how dizzy it is after being asleep for awhile," Aria said to Cyborg cheerfully.

"I'm not dizzy, but I think that you might have some answers about how you and me got here. That and how I'm not in pieces on the ground in Jump City," Cyborg said with a half smile. Aria nodded twice, feigning absentmindedness, before responding.

"Well, we got here at different times. The guys are probably caught in traffic right now, I boosted a lift off someone I know. Aerial Ace got you here. I'm not sure about why you aren't in pieces though, I think it had something to do with a program I ran and man named Mr. Stone helping put you together. I'm not really sure though, could you wait five minutes? It could come back to me," Aria said, holding out as if to stop a question with a distant look but failed to hide her grin all the same.

Cyborg momentarily tensed up as he heard his father's named mentioned, but then relaxed when he realized that she hadn't made the connection. Knowing her she had misread any looks his father had given him like that one competition's judge. He force himself to focus on the present instead of the highly amusing story that Aria had grudgingly related to him after she had lost a bet. After all she probably knew the teasing she was going to be in for in just a moment.

"Wow didn't know I was so important that even the great Aria Leon would come out to rescue me-"

"Yeah, don't know why I expended the time, or Aerial Ace did for that matter," she interrupted turning around.

"Wha-" he stopped when he realized she was crying. Aria, the girl who would face down any mammoth, judge or general prick that stood in her path without flinching, was crying. Finally he fessed up, he had made Aria cry.

Cyborg grabbed Aria's shoulder before turning her around and seeing that he had messed up big time. Tears were still running down her checks, he had royally screwed up this time. He began to ramble in an attempt to calm her down attempting an over-exaggerated smile at the end.

Aria heard this:  
"Wha- I'm fine see? No missing limbs, no viruses, no nothing! Thank you for that by the way. I'm fine now, nothing's wrong. See? Whole and intact, thanks to you."

She saw this:  
Cyborg's face was going into a variety of expressions that punctuated every sentence. His arms were still on her shoulders as he attempted to desperately reassure her ending up with a smile that looked like it wouldn't stay on his face if he kept it on too long.

"You jerk! Your not allowed to die on me, K? Especially not to some, *hic* no-name, *hic * minor villain, *hic* that even_ I_ could beat. *hic* You aren't allowed to die by a lucky or cheap shot either," she finished with a watered down glare.

"Ok. I'm sorry," Cyborg said quickly.

"Huh?" Aria asked, some what shocked.

"I'm. Sorry," he said slowly while looking her in the eyes. Aria's face turned into complete and utter bafflement, which finally managed to get her to stop crying. It was obvious that she wasn't used to being talked to like this before. He decided against continuing the thought that would have made him very angry at Aria's adoptive parents.

"O-o-ok," she said, still too shocked to remember that she was supposed to be mad at him and lecture him about having to clean him up off the street then bring him to a city that was several hours away to keep him among the living.

"So what next?" he asked before laying down on the table.

"Well, anything you want to talk about?" she asked as she laid down next to him in the same casual manner.

"Time to let stuff out," Cyborg guessed. "Was there any other option besides living with your aunt and uncle?" he asked.

"Actually yeah."

.

.

.

*I did bother Google-ing it before putting it in the story. XD

*So condition of meeting the parents has been meet. Cross dressing has been met on both sides with the sandcastle affair. After this showing of Aria's affection towards Cyborg, he'll have to step it up a notch, don't cha think? Oh, I also figured that using both of their backgrounds would make it seem more realistic. (Purposefully putting aside the fact that Cyborg IS Cyborg and we have aliens visiting the Earth on a semi-regular basis) Now they both have secrets they are trying to cover up that make it harder to find out the other's secret.

Muhahahaha. Ah ha ha ha! More complications! In both the story and finding time to update. Please review for this poor and silly author.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"Nana. It's actually her name," Aria said with a small chuckle.

"Seriously?" Cyborg asked, that was almost beyond irony. Someone cursed to be named Nana, it was kinda funny.

"Yeah. She's basically my god mother, there was this one discussion when I was born though that prevented her from getting in the will. I think it went along the lines of: 'Why do you get to be the "God" mother and I'm just the mother? I can't just will away my child to you Nana.' My parents and Nana were so weird," she admitted with no hesitation.

"Sounds like Nana loves kids so much that she'd steal them from someone else," Cyborg joked.

"That almost sums her up, if we forget the fact that Nana is STILL weird. She has Vanessa though, or as we came up with a long time ago- Nessa. She's nine, really cute and was adopted from Japan. She's kind of what got me into science as a whole," Aria said a bit embarrassed. Cyborg pushed himself into a half-way sitting position to look at Aria better.

"How'd she do that?" he asked. He couldn't get Aria to stop paying for food no matter how hard he tried, yet one little girl had managed to interest her in something she had probably never thought of. They hadn't really talked about why they knew so much about science in the chat room, or in their emails or the occasional Skype. This was going to be a good story.

"Nessa was born without eyes. It was just something that happened that everyone somehow accepted without the slightest bit of effort to change it. So I promised myself that I would make Nessa eyes so that she could see, regardless of what anyone else could think.

I keep promising that on her next birthday, I will give her something that she's never had before. I keep messing up though. The best I can get is to vaguely have shapes be recognized, no clarity, no colors. It's not good enough to say that's being able to see," Aria sighed.

"That's better than I get with my left eye," Cyborg said laying back down.

"Your left eye-" Aria turned toward him, about to ask him for a elaboration when she realized which eye he was talking about. "How is your left eye?" she asked with a trace of nervousness.

"Same old, same old. Not the same as the old one though. All I can see is red and it has a targeting cross that auto adjusts in a fight. Plus all of the read outs I get," he said a little too casually, he still missed his old life.

"Even so, how was your life before... this," she gestured to the air as if the air was superheroing embodied.

Cyborg paused for a moment, he decided to change all of the names and some of the facts when he was telling her. Nothing about what led to his becoming Cyborg, everything that was good before it though. The two of them talked about high-school, movies that they had seen, teachers they didn't like, and they had just been talking for a while when Aria became tired.

"-so then Benny went: Man, if you think Mind Synthesis 3 was crazy, you've never heard of Utility Control." Cyborg was talking about a lunchroom debate on the greatest horror movies ever. Aria was trying to listen, she really was, but her eyes were starting to close in spite of herself. His voice was too relaxing, she decided. All of the tense muscles had relaxed and now she was slipping into dreamland against her will.

"And then I said-" Cyborg glanced over at Aria and was a little hurt to see that she had fallen asleep. Then Cyborg looked at the clock and realized what time it was: 3:00 am. Aria had gotten no sleep since she woke up sometime before him. That was at least 21 hours with no sleep, he really wouldn't want to wake her up.

He carefully got up and, with exaggerated care, picked up the lab coat on the ground. He gently let it fall on Aria as a make shift blanket before he could find a way to get back to the tower. Speaking of which, how was he going to get back without his car? Maybe he and Aria shouldn't have reminisced so much and could have focused on the present. He cleaned the room before going though, no need to leave a mess that probably kept him alive.

Cyborg carried her on piggy-back out of the emergency care room, down the many white corridors, and almost out of the building. Almost out because his father was standing between them and the door. The two of them stood facing each other silently, with Aria snoozing on Cyborg's shoulder.

Cyborg decided that while he would acknowledge his help, that didn't mean he was going to sit down and have dinner with the man. He gave the briefest nod possible before leaving Star Labs. His mood was getting worse and worse.

Luckily something was about to turn that frown upside down, his car was sitting right outside. He quickly put Aria in the passenger seat and returned to make sure "his baby" was alright. There was a moment of silence when he discovered the slashed door handle. He then decided that there were worse ways to get into a locked car, it wasn't like they totaled his baby or anything. There was a green post-it note on the horn written in sharpie.

**"Hey Cy, you ok? We all go knocked out after Gizmo hit you with that gun. The firefighters told us that Aerial Ace got you to a hospital. The T-car was parked at the Pizza Corner. The next place on the GPS was Star Labs so we assumed he took you there. Do you know where Aria is? When we got home she wasn't there and there wasn't a note. Is she with you?**

**~Robin, Raven, Starfire, Beast Boy, Silky."**

Cy frowned for a moment, it wasn't like Aria not to leave a note for the guys. Then again, if another hero had to step in and pick him off the pavement, she had a right to be a bit frantic. He turned on the car, deciding against the radio. Then he remembered all over again why he didn't like driving at night in Star City on a Friday: Traffic even at 3:00 am.

* * *

Cyborg crept into the Tower with Aria piggy back, and Beast Boy looked happy to see them. So happy he nearly woke up Aria.

"CY-" Beast Boy cried before being muffled by Cyborg's hand.

"Aria's sleeping," the half robot mouthed, hunching over slightly as he did so.

"O-h," Beast Boy mouthed back with his head leaning back.

"Why are you awake already? It's really late BB," Cyborg mouthed to Beast Boy.

"Cy, it's 8 in the morning," Raven said softly from down the hall.

"Aria will wake up if she feels the light, quick, what's the fastest way to her room?" Cyborg asked glancing around. The team waited until Aria was tucked under the sheets with the blinds firmly closed before asking him what in his right mind he was doing. How did he and Aria meet up, and did he know what time it is? Superheroes don't stay out all night unless there was a mission.

Cyborg explained that Aria had gotten a ride from someone to Star Labs where she busted out some computer skills that he had been left in the dark on. The two of them had talked for awhile, she had fallen asleep and he had realized the time. The two of them had driven to the tower and that was the end of it. The time was 8:03pm.

She also hadn't had any sleep in the whole time that they had been there so she really shouldn't be woken until well after 10-o-clock. The preferred method suggested to make sure that she got the required amount was to use the forget-me-stick in case of emergency. The team vetoed the last one. Finally the question that had been on their minds for a while: Why was Cyborg so concerned about Aria's sleep?

Cyborg was caught off guard for a moment then he explained why Aria was so concerned about his eating habits and he was about his her sleeping habits. It all had to do a bet that only one of them had a bad habit that would make the other one cringe and they had to prove it.

He had listed the blue mold story.

She had listed the time she almost had cut off her bun with a lazer demonstration because she had only gotten three hours of sleep.  
Next it was the time that in the middle of a speech given by a big CEO on a foreign marketing chief and nearly ended up marrying his son due to some translation errors.  
After that it was when she had took a nap for five hours, missed her stop on a train by 3 cities and had to reschedule her appointment, costing her the gig.  
Latter that same day she wound up getting off the bus at the jail instead of the city hall.  
Then it was the-

The team stopped trying to hold back by giggling the laughter they could not control any longer.

"Did she really, heh, almost, hehe, cut off her hair with a lazer?" Beast Boy asked busting a gut on the floor.

"Aria can't say that hasn't been to jail then," Robin said after composing himself a little.

"And also nearly have to marry a foreigner? Haha! As I almost had to marry prince Glyrdsklechhh. On second thought I this is no laughing matter, how did she escape marriage to this foreigner?" Starfire asked imploringly.

"Said she ate meat, was flat-footed, and was only 12. That's not the point, now do you see why I was so insistent," Cyborg asked quickly.

"Yes," they all chorused standing in a line.

Cyborg leaned against the wall while the others talked about the party they were going to throw. Starfire was being decorator, Robin was cook, Beast Boy had music, and Raven was writing things down as fast as she could. They all dashed off at the speed of light. Cyborg wondered what they were going to fight.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Silky walked throughout the tower. The day before had been really chaotic, Beast Boy had been mixing music since ten on the third floor. Starfire had gone overboard on the glitter in some places and the store rooms would be out of streamers by the time that she was finished, that or before. Robin had been pacing the kitchen for the 2nd time when Silky left there, and Raven &amp; Cyborg were just talking to everybody. In short, he had been searching and not finding anyone to have some cuddle time with.

Silky then nudged open the door to the room where Aria was staying. While she did some contradicting things sometimes, like putting him on the couch before 5 minutes had passed, she seemed to like cuddling. He managed against every law of physics to get himself on the bed and crawling toward Aria's face. He sat on her arm for a few moments before nudging her hand.

"Mhhh." Aria felt her head swaying something awful and slowly sat upright on her pillow. She saw the overgrown silk worm on her arm nudging at her hand that belonged to Beast Boy- When did she managed to get to the Titan's Tower from Star City? She instinctively pulled Silky close and started petting him while trying to figure things out. She fell asleep around nine, with the enormous distance between and speed limits and late starting time, must have gotten back to the Titans Tower sometime around 8.

That did not explain why it was seven thirty and she felt well rested, she must have slept the whole day away. Her window faced west though, and the sun wasn't setting. Five hours wouldn't have her feeling this well rested after the week that she had been having. It left only one option left, one terrifying option. Aria had slept for more than 24 hours straight and Cyborg let her.

Silky let out a squeal when Aria stopped petting and started hugged him. It was kind of tight, but Starfire could be worse when she was really happy. Silky looked up and saw a Aria-sicle as she was in a self induced frozen state with some sort of discovery. As her arms were starting to frost he left her cold embrace and went out the door, for a cold cuddle partner was never a good cuddle partner.

Aria's icy shell cracked after a good five minutes. She decided to check to make sure that when she had fallen asleep at Star Labs that nothing had happened to the top secret technology she had brought there in a moment of panic. There was another moment of panic when she realized the suitcases weren't next in the room with her. It meant one of two things had happened, either they were at the foot of the bed and she couldn't see it or they were somewhere else in the building.

Aria wilted a bit at the thought that she might have to leave her comfy warm spot on the bed. Then she shook her head violently at the ridiculous thought about staying in bed longer when she had slept for over a day. Aria threw back her covers and turned to get out of bed. They hadn't changed her into her pajamas, but someone had bothered to take her shoes off and placed them in an ideal way to put on when she got up.

She slipped on her shoes and proceed out the door the way the a certain silk worm had left a few minutes ago. She walked through the halls that were dim without the floor to ceiling windows that usually populated the Tower's halls. It was deeper in the building from the outside than she had remembered her guest room being. Aria's pace quickened, just because Cyborg had hidden her in the Tower did not mean that he going to keep her from her darlings.*

Cyborg had just gotten out of bed feeling refreshed. No bad guys called in the middle of the night and he was fully recharged and ready to go when Aria rounded the corner like a wild cat. Her hair was disheveled and almost in a pony-tail instead of a bun by this point, but Cyborg only noticed the look of outrage on her face.

"You let me sleep for MORE THAN 24 HOURS?!" Aria gaped while pointed at the big **24** that materialized int the air next to her.

"You stayed up for over 21 hours on my account, no way that I was going to wake you up!" Cyborg protested, pointing to the **21 hr** that had materialized by him.

"Was it really 21 hours? That's not even close to my limit," Aria muttered the last part under her breath.

Beast Boy stopped for a minute trying to figure out what her limit might be if that wasn't close and had these kinds of repercussions. Cyborg wasted no time in saying exactly what he thought on the matter, "Yes on both accounts, most likely more than twenty-one hours so almost at your 28 hour limit. Which probably went down to twenty-five, knowing that you haven't gotten any where near the amount of sleep you should have been getting when you've been hanging out with us and sleeping outside."

"Could you tell me where my darlings are, or will I have to go back to Star Labs to get it? The inventions that kept you from falling apart I might add might be in another state. And it would have taken so long for us to get back if you hadn't gone into sleep-mode for two hours after the ARC Protocol was finished," Aria shot back desperately.

"You told me it had just gotten finished when I woke up," Cyborg said with a touch of suspicion.

"Oh, please. You know I'm one not just a code monkey. Did you really think that I'd design something that would take so long? We got there at ten, a man opened the door and I went to work with my darlings. Which are missing, I might add, to keep you from falling apart on me. You were in so many pieces, did you think to what might have happened if I couldn't put you together? You'd die!" Aria was nearly reduced to tears at this point. It didn't show, but one more stunt like this and she wasn't going to pull off her usual nonchalance.

"We? You said that you got there after Cyborg," Beast Boy pipped in to try and break the awkward feeling in the air.

"We meaning the time that both of us were present. What else could I mean?" Aria smoothly covered up her blunder. Before a interogation could begin, Starfire and Raven, who had just got done doing their morning regimens, walked into the room.

"This case is what is distressing you so much friend Aria?" Starfire inquired. Starfire held up the cases that she had put in a closet off of Aria's normal room.

Aria froze for a moment as the cases that were the key to not only protecting highly classified government information and her cousin's eyes were dangled in front of her. Starfire saw the look in Aria's eyes and recognized it as a mix of fear and desperation. She quickly handed over the case to put her friend at ease. Cyborg saw Aria's shoulders somewhat relax and understood the desperation as it was her ticket to creating her younger cousin's eyes.

"What is so important in those cases Aria? What are your darlings?"

"It holds the most advanced protection hardware in the US, possibly on the planet, that is in English for government files protection. It also traces the possible culprit and, if possible, will force them to stay in the area while notifying local law enforcement by tapping into the cities electrical grid. If you open it you'll see pairs of animal figurines, and one humaniod with a helmet. Those are my darlings. I'm selling it to the US government for a 8 figure amount to fund a... project of mine," Aria said while checking all of the figurines, if one of them was cracked the whole system might have to be reworked.

Robin assumed that this mystery project must have been some new addition to the Aerial Ace suit. Starfire and Beast Boy all assumed that she might have been behaving irrationally and had some sort of extra secret project that she needed to work on, that most likely wasn't out of legal bounds. If it had been she wouldn't have told them now would she. Raven felt that there was something extremely important about these figurines to Aria and decided not to question it.

Cyborg had a better inkling on what this mystery project was: Vanessa's Robotic Eyes. No medical company would really take that under their wing as it was too specific of a problem. Only people who had lost their physical eyes would be helped, not the people who had gone blind due to other reasons. She really couldn't afford to not have any sort of funding for a project of this scale and funding came with strings most of the time. If she did it this way, lots of funds, no strings. No one goes media crazy around Vanessa for being the first with robotic eyes.

Aria sighed a breath of relief, her darlings were safe, her darling Cy- WHOA WHAT THE/-_-'/BRAIN?! This is definitely not what she was thinking about, everything was accounted for. Just not her mutinous brain. Oh, Starfire was trying to signal her for a conversation change. Better take this call.

"Star, you look like your going to explode, what is it?" Aria said with her usual fake air of nonchalance.

Starfire had only been trying to make a new conversation, as prying into a friends private life was rude. There were also two topics of conversation that were definitely off limits the project of Aria's and what REALLY had happened at Star Labs that made neither of them want to elaborate. Thus leaving one thing on the menu, "Aria, would you like to go out to breakfast?" asked Starfire hurriedly.

"Uh, sure. Did something happen to the kitchen in the Tower?"

"Yes. A large explosion, I am very much surprised that that you did not awaken at the sound. Robin and I were just cleaning it up. In fact, we must be going to fix that darned oven,"

"I could help. Just let me get my stuff," Aria volunteered, relieved at the opportunity to work on something mechanical, and ignore her own biological problems.

"NO!" Beast Boy said, "Rob can fix it easy."

"Beast Boy needs supervision to clean up the mess," Raven gave the jab a dirty look that indicated whose fault this imaginary mess was. Aria accepted the lie with no more suspicion than a mechanic who found an corroded tank with oil leak. In short, she could believe that Starfire would manipulate her, badly, but Raven wouldn't care either way so it must be true.

"I'll drive," Aria said strutting towards the elevator. Cyborg followed her to the elevator as the rest of team mecha left to clean up the mess in the kitchen.

Once in the elevator Cyborg asked, "Do you have a licenses?" with a good idea of the answer.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures," Aria protested.

"Not in the eyes of law enforcement," the mechanical man teased clicking the keys once they were in the garage.

"I thought this was more of a vigilante operation," the red head commented while having the passenger side door opened for her under durance.

"I know it's not easy," Cyborg smiled, "but try not to replace Robin with Batman too often."

Aria let out a pouty sigh, but then smiled back. The two of them spent the ride over talking without any of the awkwardness that had plagued them a few days before. As the two couldn't keep their eyes off each other without knowing why there were a few near misses in the underground tunnel that would have resulted in a painful crash. The start of romantic attraction that hadn't happened online due to the lack of sight of the other person.

* * *

The team stood in the middle of the sparkling clean living room filled with streamers and barbecue looking out the window. All in all, both of them suspected something from the team and not from each other. The "team mecha" thought it would have taken more time, but things seemed to

"Starfire, this screams set-up," Robin

"A setting up of what Robin? I have not set up anything," Starfire said on a note too innocent to be believed.

"They've corrupted you," Robin said with a sigh.

Beast Boy and Raven smirked.

"Welcome to the world of shipping."

* * *

There was absolutely no way to go shopping incognito with Cyborg so the pair simply ignored the questionable stares of passerby. That was, they ignored the stares until a guy snapped a picture of Aria. That's when the two looked at the photographer, blinking from the flash. The guy was a punk who had search google by image and was trying to figure out who Aria was.

"Hello?" Cyborg asked while waving his hand near the guy's face.

The guy was quickly scanning the article he found about the young inventor and innovator with interest. The two of them being a pair might actually kick-start his career as a photographer with how believable it was. Cute mechanic and mechanical man? Instant sell out to any magazine or newspaper.

"Hey!" Aria said loud enough to convey her more than annoyed state. Not only what the guy did was rude, but he was completely ignoring the both of them. Her temper was quickly fraying as her calm medicine from hanging out with Cyborg was beginning to wear off.

Finally the guy tore his eyes away from his phone.

"The heck was that about?" Aria demanded with her tone

"Well, I guess that this isn't the best photo, shouldn't have used flash," muttered the guy mindlessly.

Cyborg was going to set the guy straight on privacy rights for people online, but the little hotheaded redhead butted in before he could.

"Shouldn't have taken the photo without my permission! Do you have any idea how rude that was? Delete it! Sorry that was rude, like how you were earlier, delete it or face legal consequences might work out a little

"Do you have a copy right on your face?" the punk was starting to get worried.

"No, but I have the right to make sure that my face doesn't get plastered all over the internet if some guy I don't know takes my permission without picture," Aria was starting to loose her ability to speak coherently in her rage.

"Ari, your starting to mix things up,"

"Dude, chick, let your hair down," the guy said in fear. Cyborg mentally winced, Aria never let her hair down. Every picture of her on the net was with a bun with varying degree of complexity. She would just get even more mad.

Cyborg's eyes shot out in surprise when Aria calmly undid her bun that she had carefully fixed in the car. Starfire's hair went down to her back. Aria's was about a foot longer when she was a head and a half shorter. It fell down her back, straight and shinny as though it had never been confined in two pony tails. Her hair was certainly a sight to see, but the cold steel gray eyes were what captured the boy's gaze.

"I let my hair down. Now delete my picture from your phone." The boy's mouth dropped open, but her eyes were steely, he would find no sympathy there. He deleted it in full view of the two of them and walked away. This chick was terrifying, when had he ever considered her "cute"?

The two of them finished getting doughnuts and some other stuff that Cyborg had forgotten at the earlier trip to the flea market they had made earlier. In the check out lane she fixed her hair back into it's usual hair do, consequentially she missed the opportunity to help pay for the doughnuts. Cyborg pointed out that it was all going out the team so the team should pay for it. Besides she did the most to get rid of the guy from before with amazing results.

"Speaking of which, how do you keep all of that hair into such a small bun?"

"My hair has no body to it for one, and secondly I've learned how to do it all from Nana," Aria said with a smile.

"I don't know about you, but I think that at 3:00 pizza's in order," Cyborg said with a trace of alternative motives.

"The guys will get mad at us for bringing home both," Aria said, surprised at her own audacity to call the Titan's Tower home. She wasn't a Titan. You had to be a hero that was always a hero or at least known as a hero to the team to be asked to be a Titan. She wasn't even asked to help out with the Adonis incident.

"We don't have to bring the pizza home," Cyborg suggested innocently. Inside he was secretly doing a happy dance at her calling the tower home.

"You want to eat out then," stated the gray-eyed girl.

"Pizza Corner?" Mr. Tin-man asked.

"Where else?" The mini mechanic smiled.

The two of them polished off the second pizza before heading back to the tower with doughnuts in hand. It was at the tower that Aria realized how disreputable her appearance was and promptly left to take a quick shower and get changed. Cyborg came into the living room and kitchen. Everything was perfect, streamers, barbecue piles of food everywhere, and a huge stack of video games to play. Starfire was going to intercept Aria with some sort of thing at the last minute, hopefully she wouldn't spill the beans.

* * *

*I thought that the if the team endorsed it, the two needed a "ship name", and yes, I do think that the Titans are shippers. Beast Boy would ship from overexposure to TV and Raven would ship from an overexposure of romantic novels. Starfire is just the one that everyone knows would become one anyways. Robin not so much, but three out of five is still a majority rule. Sorry this is so long. I couldn't think of a good place to stop and it just got longer and longer. A big sorry for not updating in so long.


End file.
